- 10 Dec 2022 - 17:46(17:46 GMT)
Closing remarks from the Nobel Peace Prize winners
Oleksandra Matviichuk from the Ukrainian Centre for Civil Liberties: “This is a very important human story because civil society and human rights defenders [have] always built invisible ties and protect[ed] people in circumstances when the law doesn’t work.
“Now we continue jointly to resist the common evil which tries to dominate in our part of the world. I couldn’t predict what will be in the future, but I know for sure that we will do our best in order to create the future we want.
Jan Rachinsky from the Russian organisation, Memorial: “It’s very difficult to imagine the world without Putin; he’s been in power for so long. Let’s hope we’ll see the day that the world will be based on respect for international law and not on the efforts of separate countries to destroy that.”
Natallia Pinchuk, wife of the jailed activist Ales Bialiatski: “I hope that the Belarusian voice will be heard by the international community. I hope for this, people in Belarus hope for this, and those compatriots who live abroad also hope for this.”
Al Jazeera’s special event is now over.
- 10 Dec 2022 - 17:35(17:35 GMT)
In Belarus, it’s ‘difficult’ to speak out against the government
In Belarus, says Natallia Pinchuk, “it’s quite difficult to speak up [or] express one’s own thoughts.”
“It’s very dangerous, people can’t speak, and we saw back in 2020 that people were brutally beaten, and we remember their cries when they were brutally abused by the police forces.
“All those things haven’t stopped – those beatings and abuses are still going on, but they are going on in prisons where those people cant be heard.
Pinchuk added that Belarusian need global support to fight back against the government.
- 10 Dec 2022 - 17:26(17:26 GMT)
Putin ‘does not want negotiations’, says Matviichuk
Putin “does not want negotiations”, says Oleksandra Matviichuk from the Ukrainian Centre for Civil Liberties.
“Putin will stop only when he wants to stop. what he calls negotiations, and some ‘political’ compromise means the life of our [Ukrainian] people because when we sent mobile groups to Bucha … we found civilian bodies scattered around the streets until liberation.
“It’s occupation; we have the names of the things they are. Ukraine will never compromise with the lives of our people”, she said.
- 10 Dec 2022 - 17:20(17:20 GMT)
‘This prize is not just for us,’ says Rachinsky
“This prize is not just for us; it is the whole community of human rights defenders from different countries. Human rights are above national borders,” says Jan Rachinsky from Memorial.
“Now, human rights mean even more than when the European court of human rights was available to us as a remedy; this was the last hope for justice to be done. Now people have to think twice and have to think twice about what human rights are [and] what are those common universal values”.
- 10 Dec 2022 - 17:14(17:14 GMT)
The threat of nuclear war is becoming ‘more tangible’, says Rachinsky
Jan Rachinsky says, “Because of Putin, the threat [of nuclear war] is becoming more tangible.”
“It’s a serious threat, and I hope it won’t get to a nuclear war because there are sober minds who understand there are no winners in a nuclear war.”
The future of the war, he said, is in the hands of the international community; either its the “inconveniencies today” in terms of financially aiding Ukraine and its refugees or a “catastrophe tomorrow”.
- 10 Dec 2022 - 17:07(17:07 GMT)
A war with Ukraine will lead to Lukashenko’s collapse, says Pinchuk
There are different perspectives on Ukraine in Belarus, says Natallia Pinchuk.
“There is Lukashenko and his entourage, and there are Belarusian people, and of course, those positions are quite different from those in Russia. Belarusian people don’t support the aggression. Of course, Putin has a lot of influence on Lukashenko, and Lukashenko is doing everything to stay in union with Russia,” she said.
“An open war with Ukraine will lead to his [Lukashenko’s] collapse in Belarus”.
- 10 Dec 2022 - 17:01(17:01 GMT)
Russians are supporting Ukrainians that have been deported: Rachinsky
Jan Rachinsky from the Russian organisation Memorial said there is support by Russians for Ukrainians who have been sent there “forcibly” during the war.
“It came as a surprise. It’s much more active than I had imagined. I would have never thought that people would be so active and proactive and so compassionate to self-organise in this way.”
- 10 Dec 2022 - 16:54(16:54 GMT)
Defending civil rights is ‘important’ and ‘risky’, says Bialiatski’s wife
Ahead of the special event with Al Jazeera, Natallia Pinchuk, Bialiatski’s wife, accepted the award on behalf of her husband, said the mission of defending civil rights is “risky”.
“We all realise how important and risky the mission of civil rights defenders is, especially in the tragic time of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine”, she said.
“Ales is not the only one to be in jail; thousands of Belarusians, tens of thousands of those who are repressed, unjustly imprisoned for their civic actions and beliefs, are in prison, and hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee the country for the mere reason that they wanted to live in a democratic state”.
Bialiatski is the fourth person to win the Nobel Peace Prize while in detention, after Germany’s Carl von Ossietzky in 1935, China’s Liu Xiaobo in 2010 and Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi, who was under house arrest in 1991.
- 10 Dec 2022 - 16:52(16:52 GMT)
Russia uses a ‘tactic of terror’, says Matviichuk
“Russia uses a tactic of terror against people in the occupied territories”, says Oleksandra Matviichuk from the Ukrainian Centre for Civil Liberties, on the topic of the conflict in Ukraine.
“We’ve sent numerous reports to the UN and the Council of Europe, and nothing stops; this horror still continues and after large-scale invasion [we’re] faced with unprecedented human pain.”
Matviichuk added that the organisation documents human rights abuses on both sides of the conflict, but the vast majority are crimes committed by Russian troops.
- 10 Dec 2022 - 16:44(16:44 GMT)
We have ‘little’ information about Bialiatski’s condition in jail
When asked about Ales Bialiatski condition in jail, Natalia Pinchuk, says it’s “difficult” to answer the question since they can only communicate through letters.
“In general, we have little information because we are not allowed to write about his condition in prison, and he is not allowed to discuss the situation there or the situation in the country. So, I can only imagine the conditions he is held in,” she said.
“We communicate in writing, but there is censorship, and he puts numbers on his letters that indicate how many letters we receive, so [we know that] we don’t receive all the letters.
“So, its very difficult for me to answer this question”.
- 10 Dec 2022 - 16:36(16:36 GMT)
Al Jazeera speaks to Natallia Pinchuk, wife of jailed activist Ales Bialiatski
Reporting from Oslo at the award ceremony, Al Jazeera’s James Bay and Folly Bah Thibault speak to Natallia Pinchuk, wife of the jailed activist Ales Bialiatski, who says winning the award was “unexpected”.
“For Ales, his reaction [to the award] was quite unexpected, and I saw it from his gestures and movement, from non-verbal communication during our meeting. Unfortunately, we only had one hour to communicate.
“First of all, I believe we should not only talk about Ales, but all political prisoners in Belarus, and this prize is of utmost importance because the world has heard about the Belarusian tragedy.
“Thousands of people are behind bars, in terrible conditions, in harsh conditions and its a very important message to the whole world, so this prize gives us hope”.
- 10 Dec 2022 - 16:25(16:25 GMT)
Al Jazeera speaks to Jan Rachinsky from Memorial
Al Jazeera’s James Bay and Folly Bah Thibault, reporting from Oslo at the award ceremony, speak to Jan Rachinsky from the Russian organisation Memorial. Rachinsky says despite the Kremlin ordering them to close the organisation is not banned.
“Our organisation is not banned. There are two organisations: the international memorial and the human rights centre memorial, which have been disbanded and banned, but we have an association of independent organisations.
“We used to have hundreds and thousands of people, of those comprised today, are tens of thousands but we still have lots of people doing this work, so our activities are not banned,” he said.
- 10 Dec 2022 - 16:15(16:15 GMT)
Al Jazeera speaks to Oleksandra Matviichuk from the Ukrainian Centre for Civil Liberties
Al Jazeera’s James Bay and Folly Bah Thibault, reporting from Oslo, speak to the Ukrainian Centre for Civil Liberties group chairwoman, Oleksandra Matviichuk, who says the peace prize is “recognition” for the Ukrainian people.
“This Noble Peace Prize is a recognition of the efforts of the whole Ukrainian nation who bravely struggle for freedom and our democratic choice.”
“This is a huge responsibility because this is a Noble Peace Prize during the war and during a very bloody war.
“For decades, the voice of human rights defenders from our region wasn’t heard, so it provides us with a unique opportunity.”
- 10 Dec 2022 - 16:06(16:06 GMT)
Ukraine fights for ‘our joint peaceful future’, Russian rights activist says
Ahead of the award ceremony, the representative for Ukraine’s Centre for Civil Liberties, Oleksandra Matviichuk, was asked whether Kyiv should enter into peace talks with Moscow and said Kyiv would “never leave our people for torture and death in occupied territories”.
“So the West has to help Ukraine to resist and to liberate all temporarily occupied territories, including Crimea,” she said.
“The logic of authoritarian leaders is very understandable: They see any attempt (at) dialogue as a sign of weakness,” she added.
The Russian rights group Memorial, another winner of the prize, said Ukraine was fighting for its independence and the survival of a peaceful international order.
“It is fighting for international law,” Yan Rachinsky, chairman of the international Memorial board, said at the same news conference. “It is fighting for our joint peaceful future.”
“The choice before the international community … is between the unpleasant situation today and the catastrophe tomorrow,” he said.
- 10 Dec 2022 - 16:05(16:05 GMT)
Who are the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize?
The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize is jointly awarded to three winners from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus for their efforts to document war crimes and human rights abuses.
But who exactly are the winners?
Ales Bialiatski, a jailed activist from Belarus, fought against abuses by the Soviet Union. He was jailed two years ago, which his supporters say was done to silence him after criticising President Alexsandr Lukashenko.
The Russian organisation Memorial records human rights abuses and rights violations in Russia. The Kremlin ordered the organisation to be shut down last year.
The Ukrainian Centre for Civil Liberties group promotes human rights and fights against corruption in Ukraine. Since the Russian invasion, their work has focused on documenting war crimes against Ukrainians.
Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony interviews
All the updates from Al Jazeera’s interviews with the Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian human rights activists.
This blog is now closed, thanks for joining us.
- Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian human rights activists are this year’s recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize for their work in documenting war crimes, human rights abuses and the abuse of power.
- Jailed activist Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, the Russian organisation Memorial and the Ukrainian Centre for Civil Liberties were announced as the recipients in October.
- Al Jazeera is live from Oslo to interview Natallia Pinchuk, Bialiatski’s wife; Jan Rachinsky from Memorial; and Oleksandra Matviichuk from the Center for Civil Liberties.
- The Peace Prize is awarded annually on December 10, the day Alfred Nobel died in 1896.
Here is the latest on the award ceremony:
Source: Al Jazeera