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News from the NOS•today, 11:06•Modified today, 11:27
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize was shared by Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski and Ukrainian and Russian organizations. They are the Russian human rights organization Memorial and the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties. The announcement was made in Oslo by the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee.
Bialitiski became famous for his work for the Viasna human rights center, which he founded in 1996. The center supports political prisoners in Belarus. It is considered the most important human rights organization in the former Soviet state, which has close links with Russia.
Bialitski was imprisoned for over a year. He is officially in prison for tax evasion, but it is widely believed that there were political reasons for his arrest. Belarus is an autocratically governed country, led by dictator Alexander Lukashenko since 1994.
In 2020, Bialitiski won the so-called Right Livelihood Award, an award also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize.
Watch the announcement of the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee here:
One person and two organizations together receive the Nobel Peace Prize
It is the second consecutive year that the commission has drawn attention to the human rights situation in the former Soviet Union with the award. Last year the Nobel Peace Prize was shared by two journalists: the Russian Dmitri Muratov and the Filipina Maria Ressa. They were rewarded for their efforts in their country for freedom of expression and freedom of the press. These freedoms are under pressure in both Russia and the Philippines.
Muratov, founder and former editor-in-chief of the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, in June of this year auction the medal accompanying the prize. To everyone’s surprise, more than $ 103 million was eventually offered.
