Human Rights Advocates Win 2022 Nobel Peace Prize
October 7, 2022
Illustrations by Niklas Elmehed
One individual and two organizations share this year’s Nobel Peace Prize: Ales Bialiatski, Memorial, and the Center for Civil Liberties. All three have shown tremendous courage in advocating for human rights, documenting human rights violations and war crimes, and preserving free speech.
“This year’s laureates represent civil society in their home countries,” said Norwegian Nobel Committee Chair Berit Reiss-Andersen. “They have, for many years, promoted the right to criticize power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens, and have made an outstanding effort to document war crimes, human rights abuses, and the abuse of power. Together they demonstrate the significance of civil society for peace and democracy.”
Ales Bialiatski, a Belarusian civic leader who has been held prisoner since July 2021, founded the human rights center Viasna in 1996. In 2003, the Belarusian Supreme Court cancelled the NGO’s registration in response to Viasna’s observation of the 2001 presidential election. But Viasna and Bialiatski continued their work, which led to Bialiatski’s imprisonment in 2011 and again last year. In both cases, he was charged with tax evasion, but leaders of the European Union, EU governments and the United States, along with Belarusian human rights activists, have countered that he is a political prisoner. “Our message,” said Reiss-Anderson during the Nobel Peace Prize announcement, “is an urge to the authorities in Belarus to release Mr. Bialiatski.”
Memorial is an international human rights organization that emerged during the Soviet Union’s perestroika years (during the late 1980s) to document crimes against humanity committed in the USSR. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the group continued documenting and publicizing war crimes and human rights violations. Memorial became an international NGO is 1992—with locations in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Georgia, Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, and France—operating under the following goals:
To promote mature civil society and democracy based on the rule of law and thus prevent a return to totalitarianism
To assist the formation of public awareness based on the values of democracy and law, to extirpate totalitarian patterns, and to firmly establish human rights in everyday politics and public life
To promote the truth about the historical past and perpetuate the memory of the victims of political repression carried out by totalitarian regimes
Its online database contains more than three million names, representing about 25 percent of the victims, leaving much work to be done. Memorial was closed in 2021 under Russia’s foreign agent law, which cited Memorial with "creating a false image of the Soviet Union as a terrorist state . . . making us repent for the Soviet past, instead of remembering glorious history.” However, Memorial’s work has continued, even without legal recognition as an NGO.
The Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) was established in 2007 by leaders of human rights organizations in nine post-Soviet countries, who created a cross-border resource support center in Kiev to promote human rights and democracy in Ukraine. CCL became better known in other parts of the world in 2013 when it documented human rights violations during the violent crackdown of the Euromaidan protests, a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in the country. Earlier this year, CCL was honored by Right Livelihood for “building sustainable democratic institutions in Ukraine and modeling a path to international accountability for war crimes,” work that has become critically important this year, as war rages on in Ukraine.
The Nobel Peace Prize was established by the will of Alfred Nobel and is awarded to those who have "done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” Read the Nobel Peace Prize’s 2022 press release.
JA is honored and humbled to be considered alongside this year’s illustrious nominees. We’ll continue our mission to equip millions of young people each year with the skillset and mindset to build thriving communities, working toward greater prosperity and peace for youth in over 115 countries.