As Russia's military invasion of Ukraine continues, the award ceremony for this year's Nobel Peace Prize was held, and representatives of human rights groups in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, who received the award, all face a severe situation in which human rights are being violated. sued.
At the award ceremony held on the 10th at the city hall of Oslo, the capital of Norway, medals were awarded to Belarusian human rights activists and Russian and Ukrainian human rights groups for promoting the right to criticize power.
In her speech after receiving the award, Oleksandra Matichuk, representative of the Ukrainian human rights organization "Center for Civil Liberties," said, "I am proud to be able to give a speech here in Ukrainian," which received a big round of applause from the audience.
"Peace and human rights are two sides of the same coin. A country that kills journalists and suppresses peaceful demonstrations poses a threat not only to its own people, but to the peace of the region and the world," he said. "Now is the time to break the chain of impunity and bring justice to war crimes. We must set up an international tribunal and try Putin and Lukashenko as war criminals."
"Unfortunately, Russian society did not have the strength to break the tradition of state violence," said Jan Rachinsky, an executive at Memorial, which has investigated human rights violations in Russia and other countries since the Soviet era. I was disappointed that I couldn't stop it.
In addition, Belarusian human rights activist Alesi Byaljacki was unable to attend the award ceremony because he is in prison, and his wife Natalia Pinchuk read the message on her behalf, stating, "Thousands of people in Belarus are political. "I'm in prison for ugly reasons, but I can't stop the voices of those who are thirsty for freedom."