“Defended the right to criticize the government and defend the fundamental rights of citizens”

“Defended the right to criticize the government and defend the fundamental rights of citizens”



The Nobel Peace Prize goes to Russia for the second time in a row. It was awarded to the human rights center "Memorial" (it was recognized as a foreign agent and liquidated by a court decision). In addition, the Ukrainian human rights organization "Center for Civil Liberties" and the Belarusian lawyer Ales Byalyatsky received the award. Human rights activists point out that now this is “almost the only narrow space that still unites” the three countries.

“Peace Prize winners represent civil society in their home countries. For many years they have defended the right to criticize the authorities and defend the fundamental rights of citizens. They have made outstanding efforts to document war crimes, human rights violations and abuses of power. Together they demonstrate the importance of civil society for peace and democracy,” reads the motivational part of the decision of the Nobel Committee in Oslo.

This year there are three laureates at once - the human rights center "Memorial" (recognized earlier as an NGO-foreign agent and liquidated by a court decision), lawyer Ales Byalyatsky from Belarus and the Ukrainian human rights organization "Center for Civil Liberties".

As the Nobel Committee recalled, human rights organization "Memorial" was founded in 1987 by "human rights activists" who sought to ensure that "the victims of oppression by the communist regime are never forgotten." "Memorial is based on the idea that fighting past crimes is essential to preventing new ones," reads the site Nobel Peace Prize. It also notes that “after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Memorial became the largest human rights organization in Russia”, “collected and systematized information about political harassment and human rights violations” in the country, “became the most authoritative source of information about political prisoners in Russian investigative detention centers" was "at the forefront of efforts to combat militarism and uphold human rights, as well as to form a government based on the rule of law."

“Representatives of civil society in Russia over the years have been threatened, imprisoned, disappeared, killed. As part of the persecution of Memorial by the government, the organization was labeled a "foreign agent" from the very beginning," the Nobel Committee recalled. In December 2021, a decision was made to forcibly liquidate Memorial. But the people behind this organization do not plan to give up, as stated on the website of the Nobel Committee.

The second laureate is Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski, who is called "one of the initiators of the democratic movement that emerged in Belarus in the mid-1980s." “He dedicated his life to promoting democracy and peaceful development in his native country. Among other things, he founded the organization "Spring" in 1996 in response to controversial constitutional amendments that gave the president dictatorial powers and caused massive demonstrations. Vesna provided support to imprisoned demonstrators and their families. In subsequent years, Viasna turned into a broad human rights organization that documented the use of torture by the authorities on political prisoners and protested against it,” the reasoning part of the decision reads. Mr. Byalyatsky spent more than one year in prison. He was detained in July 2021 and has been in a pre-trial detention center in Minsk since then.

The third laureate is the Center for Civil Liberties, founded in 2007 in Kyiv., which, as noted in the Nobel Committee, was engaged in "strengthening Ukrainian civil society and putting pressure on the authorities in order to turn Ukraine into a full-fledged democracy." The reasoning part of the decision specifically states that “after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Center for Civil Liberties made efforts to identify and document Russia’s war crimes against the civilian population of Ukraine.”

Candidates for laureates

“A very precise solution, which opposes attempts to divide peoples into good and bad in general, goes against the inhumane, but unfortunately quite popular talk that there are no good, worthy and important people for the world in bad peoples, not to mention public figures and organizations, and that without exception all the figures, organizations and simply residents of the dictatorship are its comrades-in-arms and accomplices,” wrote in his Telegram- channel international political scientist Alexander Baunov. - "It happens," the Nobel Peace Committee tells us, rewarding organizations and people from the country of the victim, the country of the aggressor and the country of the accomplice at the same time. "Not associates," he clarifies, giving two-thirds of the bonus to residents of two different dictatorial regimes.

And Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs magazine, called the decision of the Nobel Committee “a demonstration of support for a very specific type of socio-political action, but outside of direct participation in political activity. “In principle, within the tradition of the committee, especially with the emphasis that the three countries / peoples are connected and united. Even elegantly,” he wrote in his Telegram-channel.

“Protection of human rights is almost the only narrow space that still unites us. Congratulations, friends! All freedom and peace!” noted (also in his Telegramchannel) Pavel Chikov, head of the Russian human rights group Agora.

Indeed, the Nobel Committee could have made far less elegant decisions. So, among the favorites, Reuters, referring to bookmakers, called the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, volunteers helping civilians in the country, and The Kyiv Independent newspaper.

Awarding the peace prize to Volodymyr Zelensky would be a reward for “the entire Ukrainian people, who today pay the highest price for the right to live without war,” adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters.

The journalists asked the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov about the same, but he only said: “Let's comment when something goes where, and not when they write about a hypothetical possibility.” But Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador spoke more frankly. “Regardless of whether we support one or the other, how will one of the participants in the military conflict receive the Nobel Peace Prize? Are there really no others who are fighting for peace?” he protested at a press conference on Wednesday, citing Pope Francis and UN Secretary General António Guterres as examples.

According to the director of the Oslo Peace Research Institute (Peace Research Institute Oslo) Henrik Urdal, the best chances of winning this year were:

  • Belarusian opposition activist Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and imprisoned Russian politician Alexei Navalny;
  • the International Court of Justice;
  • Indian writer and activist Harsh Mander, as well as the Indian civil campaign in support of the victims of violence Karwan-e-Mohabbat ("Love Caravan");
  • Uighur activist Ilham Tohti, who is serving a life sentence in China on charges of separatism, and Hong Kong protest leaders Agnes Chow and Nathan Lowe;
  • NGOs Human Rights Data Analysis Group and Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies.

In addition, back in February, the agency Reuters reported on the nomination of the World Health Organization (WHO), the government of national unity of Myanmar (opponents of the current military authorities), British TV presenter and one of the pioneers of nature documentaries David Attenborough, environmental activist Greta Thunberg, and Simon Coffee, Foreign Minister of the island state of Tuvalu, sinking due to rising sea levels.

As follows from the will of Alfred Nobel, the Peace Prize is awarded "to those who have achieved the greatest success or who have done more than others in uniting peoples and reducing the number of active armies, as well as for holding peace congresses and drawing attention to them." By tradition, the ceremony takes place on Friday of the first full week of October, after the names of laureates in the region become known. medicine, physics, chemistry and literature. Members of parliaments and governments of all countries, members of international courts, rectors of universities, professors of social sciences, other laureates and members of the boards of award-winning organizations, as well as members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee can put forward their proposals for candidates. The deadline for submitting applications is 31 January. The full list of this year's nominees will not be made public until 50 years later.

Recallthat a year earlier the prize had been awarded to Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, and also to Filipino journalist Maria Ressa. They were chosen among 234 people and 95 organizations. “Mrs. Ressa and Mr. Muratov are receiving an award for their courageous fight for freedom of expression in the Philippines and Russia. At the same time, they are representatives of all journalists who support these ideas in our world, where there are increasingly unfavorable conditions for democracy and freedom of the media, ”said Berit Reiss-Andersen, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, announcing the winners. Mr. Muratov became the 20th domestic Nobel laureate (if we include writers Ivan Bunin, Iosif Brodsky and physicist Vitaly Ginzburg among them) and the third laureate of the Peace Prize (after Andrei Sakharov in 1975 and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990).

“We can congratulate Dmitry Muratov,” said Dmitry Peskov at the time. “He consistently works according to his ideals, he is committed to his ideals. He's talented, he's brave." Truth, as "Kommersant" wrote a year ago, "the biographies of Nobel laureates do not in all cases confirm that the prize becomes a safe-conduct." So, remember, it happened. In March, Novaya Gazeta was forced to suspend work “until the end of the special operation in Ukraine,” explaining This is a decision with two warnings from Roskomnadzor. In early September, the Basmanny District Court acknowledged invalidate the license of Novaya Gazeta as a print media. And soon after that, the Supreme Court of Russia granted the requirement of Roskomnadzor to terminate the activities of the Novaya Gazeta website as an electronic media.

The co-founder of Memorial and the chairman of the board of the International Memorial society (declared by the authorities of the Russian Federation as a foreign agent and liquidated by the decision of the Supreme Court) Yan Rachinsky admitted to Kommersant that he did not expect such a decision from the Nobel Committee, because Memorial had already been nominated several times over the years in the nominees for the award. He recalled that Memorial has a branch in the Russian Federation, which, unlike the International Memorial and the Human Rights Center Memorial, continues to work: in any case, this award is perceived as an award to the entire ''Memorial'' as a whole, and this is certainly gratifying. I am very proud and happy for my colleagues who work in archives, in conflict zones, in monitoring commissions, in various parts of the former USSR.”

The second "Russian" Nobel Peace Prize for two years, including in the context of military operations in Ukraine, reflects the "hopes" of the world community for civil society in Russia, Mr. Rachinsky believes. “A lot now depends on civil society in Russia, including the resolution of the current situation to stop the bloodshed, I think this is the opinion of the world community,” he said.

Yan Rachinsky found it difficult to say where the Nobel money would go, emphasizing that now Memorial is solving "more significant issues": "Right now I am in court, where another trial against Memorial is underway." Mr. Rachinsky is referring to the process to deprive Memorial of the building in Moscow, where the organization has been located for several decades. The Prosecutor General's Office insisted on the process.

Pavel Tarasenko, Maria Starikova



Source link