In line with bookmakers’ forecasts, the Nobel Peace Prize has an openly anti-Putin value and a firm condemnation of the war in Ukraine. “The Nobel Peace Prize is not against Vladimir Putin, but in favor of respect for civil rights,” explained the Norwegian Nobel Committee after announcing the awarding of the Peace Prize to a Belarusian activist and two NGOs.
The jurors of the influential Swedish Academy, influenced by the ongoing conflict in the heart of Europe, awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize to the Belarusian Ales Bialiatski, the Russian human rights organization Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights association Center for Civil Liberties. A triple, unusual assignment that recognizes the battles for human and civil rights of three subjects – one individual and two associations – from three different countries – Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, all directly or indirectly involved in the war that broke out on February 24 with the invasion of Ukrainian territory by the Moscow army. As reported by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee itself, 60-year-old Ales Bialiatski was one of the initiators of the democratic movement that emerged in Belarus in the mid-1980s. He has dedicated his life to promoting democracy and peaceful development in his home country, despite the government authorities repeatedly trying to silence him, having been jailed from 2011 to 2014. Following large-scale demonstrations against the regime in 2020, he was arrested again and is still detained without trial. “Despite his enormous personal difficulties, Bialiatski has not given in an inch in his fight for human rights and democracy in Belarus,” reads the statement from the Nobel Prize.
Born on 25 September 1962 in Viartsilia, the Belarusian activist is known for his work with the Viasna Human Rights Center, of which he is currently the president, and for founding the BPF Party, as well as being vice president of the International Federation for Rights humans (FIDH). Behind him he has a brilliant path in the field of literature. A graduate of Francishak Skaryna Gomel State University, he also holds a PhD from the Belarusian Academy of Sciences, who has since become one of the leading scholars of Belarusian literature.
Member of the Writers Union, she also helped found the Tutejshyja Association of Young Writers, of which she was president between 1986 and 1989. In 1980 he was an active part in the anti-Soviet protests and promoter of the democratic movement that emerged in Belarus at the time. among other things, contributing to the organization of an important event: a memorial ceremony at Kurapaty, site where in the late 1930s, the NKVD is supposed to have murdered thousands of political opponents. Bialiatski also participated in the founding of the “Belarusian People’s Front” (BPF). His other great “work” is the “Viasna Human Rights Center” (Spring): an organization based in Minsk, founded in 1996 in response to controversial constitutional amendments that gave President Aleksandr Lukashenko dictatorial powers. Viasna provides financial and legal assistance for political prisoners and their families. For him the problems with justice began in February 2011, when he was summoned to the prosecutor’s office, warning him that, not being a registered organization, if Viasna continued his activities, the government would initiate criminal proceedings against him. Only six months later Bialiatski was arrested on charges of evasion tax, which involves up to 7 years of imprisonment and confiscation of assets. The accusation was made possible by financial documents issued by the prosecutors of Lithua nia and Poland. In October 2011, the activist was sentenced to 4 and a half years in prison for “large-scale income concealment”. The United Nations has condemned the Belarusian courts on the scale of the charges, demanding his immediate release and on several occasions his detention has been described as “arbitrary”. In November 2012, based on a court ruling against Bialatski, Viasna’s office in Minsk was confiscated and sealed by the Belarusian government. Rallying in his defense were some of the largest international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), who have launched a campaign to support his release and inform more about the conditions. of political prisoners in Belarus.
Support also came from the French government as Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister, later apologized for the “reprehensible mistake” and so did Lithuania. The first international awards arrived for Bialiastky in prison: in September 2012 the Lech Wasa Award. The following month the European Parliament designated him a finalist for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. For his commitment to the promotion of human rights and democracy he then received the homo homini Award and the Per Anger Award. On 21 June 2014, after 1,052 days of detention in precarious health conditions, mainly due to periods of isolation, he was released from prison, 20 months earlier than expected. On 11 November 2014, the city council of Syracuse awarded her honorary citizenship, at the request of the local group of Amnesty International, as a symbol of her strenuous defense of human rights in Europe. Also for his battles for democracy and rights in Belarus, in 2020, in full movement of popular protest against the regime, the activist was again jailed and has been without trial for two years. For him, the highest recognition came today, with the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize. Bialiatsky has been married since 1987 to Natallia Pinchuk, whom he met in 1982, when the activist was a student at Francishak Skaryna Gomel State University and Natallia was studying at the Loeu pedagogical college. Together they have a son named Adam. The activist said he has two great hobbies in life: finding mushrooms and planting flowers.