Human rights champions in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine will receive the Nobel Peace Prize this year.
The world's most prestigious peace prize goes to the imprisoned Belarusian human rights lawyer Ales Byaljatzki, the Russian organization Memorial and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties.
This was announced by the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday in Oslo.
This year's award winners represented civil society in their home countries, said committee chair Berit Reiss-Andersen at the awards ceremony.
For many years they have campaigned to protect the fundamental rights of citizens and the right to criticize those in power.
With that, the days of Nobel Prize announcements have reached their peak.
The winners in the categories medicine, physics, chemistry and literature had already been announced this week.
Next Monday, the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences will follow, which is the only one of the prizes that does not go back to the testament of Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), inventor of the dynamite and founder of the prize.
Award ceremony in Oslo
The Russian organization Memorial will be honored for its commitment against militarism and for its commitment to human rights, said Reiss-Andersen on Friday.
Memorial was founded in 1986 with the aim that the victims of the communist regime in the Soviet Union should not be forgotten.
The organization was banned in Russia last year.
The Center for Civil Liberties, which also received an award, has contributed to strengthening Ukrainian civil society, said Reiss-Andersen.
After the start of the Russian war of aggression, the human rights activists documented war crimes against the population.
According to the Nobel Committee, the human rights activist Bialiatski, who is imprisoned in Belarus, founded the Viasna organization, which campaigns against the torture of political prisoners.
Reiss-Andersen said he dedicated his life to promoting democracy and peaceful development.
The Nobel Committee is demanding his release, as well as that of other political prisoners in Belarus.
This year, the Nobel Prizes are once again endowed with ten million Swedish crowns (around 980,000 euros) per category.
They are traditionally awarded on the anniversary of Nobel's death, December 10th.
The Nobel Peace Prize is the only one of the prizes that is not presented in Stockholm, Sweden, but in the Norwegian capital, Oslo.
343 candidates nominated
The United Nations congratulated the recipients of this year's Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.
The award for the human rights activists shows how important the fight for freedom is, stressed the spokeswoman for the UN in Geneva, Alessandra Vellucci, on Friday.
She recalled that human rights are one of the cornerstones of the entire UN system, along with peace and development.
The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize goes to human rights lawyer Ales Byalyatski from Belarus, the Russian organization Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties.
This was announced by the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday in Oslo.
The Nobel Peace Prize is considered the most important peace prize on earth.
A total of 343 candidates - 251 personalities and 92 organizations - were nominated for him this year.
The names of the nominees are traditionally kept secret for 50 years.
Last year, the Filipino Maria Ressa and the Russian Dmitri Muratow were honored with the prize.
The two journalists received it for their fight for freedom of expression.
The last German prizewinner was ex-Chancellor Willy Brandt more than 50 years ago: he was honored in 1971 for his Ostpolitik, which helped to ease the tension in the Cold War.