2 yıl önce

Nobel Peace Prize laureates honoured at ceremony in Oslo

The winners of this year's Nobel Peace Prize from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine shared their visions of a fairer world and denounced the conflict in Ukraine.

AP

Natalia Pinchuk, the wife of imprisoned Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski, Yan Rachinsky, chairman of Memorial and Oleksandra Matviychuk, head of Ukraine's Centre for Civil Liberties pose at the award ceremony.

The co-winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, including Russia's oldest human rights organisation, Memorial, Ukraine's Centre of Civil Liberties [CCL] and jailed Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski, have been honoured at an official awards ceremony in Oslo.

Saturday’s award ceremonies took place at the Oslo City Hall in the presence of King Olav V and Queen Sonja, while the other Nobel prizes were formally presented during ceremonies in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, later the same day.

Chairman of the International Memorial Board Yan Rachinsky denounced Russia's threat to Ukraine's sovereignty but strongly rejected the notion of “national guilt.”

“It is not worth talking about ‘national’ or any other collective guilt at all — the notion of collective guilt is abhorrent to fundamental human rights principles,” he said.

Russia’s Supreme Court shut down Memorial, one of Russia’s oldest and most prominent human rights organisations that was widely acclaimed for its studies of political repression in the Soviet Union, in December 2021.

Oleksandra Matviichuk of Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties dismissed calls for a political compromise that would allow Russia to retain some of the illegally annexed Ukrainian territories.

Founded in 2007, the Kiev-based CCL is engaged in introducing legislative amendments in an attempt to make Ukraine more democratic and to improve the public control of law enforcement agencies and the judiciary.

This year's winners of the Nobel Peace Prize receive their medals at a ceremony in Oslo pic.twitter.com/IdbZ5uLvD1
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) December 10, 2022

Imprisoned Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski is the fourth person in the 121-year history of the Nobel prizes to be awarded the prize while behind bars. His wife, Natalia Pinchuk, accepted his award.

Bialiatski's defence of human rights in Belarus has brought him numerous international accolades.

He is a founding member of human rights organisation Viasna Human Rights Centre and the political and social movement, Belarusian Popular Front. He is also a member of the Coordination Council of the Belarusian opposition.

Bialiatski has been imprisoned twice. Firstly from 2011 to 2014 and currently since 2021 both occasions on charges of tax evasion. Bialiatski, as well as other human rights activists, have called the charges politically motivated.

SOURCE: TRTWorld and agencies