This year’s prestigious Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to two organizations, along with a person working for human rights. This award was jointly given to human rights lawyer Ales Bialiatski from Belarus along with human rights organizations ‘Memorial’ and ‘Center for Civil Liberties’ from Russia and Ukraine.
The awardees represent civil society in their respective countries. They have been fighting for years to protect the basic rights of citizens, including the right to criticize the ruling party. It has done an excellent job in registering violations of rights, abuse of power and war crimes. The Nobel Committee opined that they show the importance of civil society with peace and democracy. It is known that last year this award was given to journalists Maria Ressa (Philippines) and Dmitry Muratov (Russia) who worked for the protection of freedom of expression.
Ales Bialiatski from Belarus was one of the pioneers of the democracy movement in the country in the 1980s. He dedicated his life to democracy and peaceful development. He has been in jail since July 2021.