The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Ukrainian human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties, Russian human rights organization Memorial, and imprisoned Belarusian human rights campaigner Ales Byalyatski.
The judges intended to recognize “three great advocates of human rights, democracy, and peaceful coexistence in the neighboring nations Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine,” according to Berit Reiss-Andersen, head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
“This year’s laureates have reinvigorated and honored Alfred Nobel’s goal of peace and brotherhood between countries, a vision most needed in the world today,” she told reporters in Oslo. “Through their constant efforts in favor of human values, anti-militarism, and principles of law.”
Additionally, she demanded that Belarus free tax evader Byalyatski from custody.
Andersen told reporters, “Our message is an appeal to the Belarusian authorities to free Mr. Bialiatski. We do hope this will happen so that he may travel to Oslo and accept the honor conferred upon him.
The monetary awards for the prizes total 10 million Swedish kronor, or around $900,000. They will be distributed on December 10. The funds originate from a donation made in 1895 by Alfred Nobel, a Swedish inventor who founded the award.
The honor has in the past drawn attention to organizations and people working to end wars, ease suffering, and defend human rights.
The winners from the previous year have experienced hardship after obtaining the award. The government has been trying to silence journalists, but Dmitry Muratov of Russia and Maria Ressa of the Philippines have been battling for the survival of their journalistic companies.
For “their efforts to defend freedom of speech, which is a prerequisite for democracy and sustainable peace,” they received recognition last year.
The declaration coincides with Vladimir Putin’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24 and has already caused hundreds of civilian fatalities and millions of displaced people.
The Kremlin has tightened down on internal criticism since the invasion started, and it has been charged with a number of war crimes in Ukraine.
Monday marked the beginning of Nobel Prize announcement week, with Swedish scientist Svante Paabo winning the prize in medicine for revealing Neanderthal DNA’s hidden information that was crucial to understanding our immune system.
The physics award was shared by three experts on Tuesday.
A phenomenon known as quantum entanglement, which may be utilized for specialized computing and to encrypt information, was shown by the Frenchman Alain Aspect, the American John F. Clauser, and the Austrian Anton Zeilinger.
The American scientists Carolyn R. Bertozzi and K. Barry Sharpless, as well as the Danish researcher Morten Meldal, were given the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for creating a method of “snapping molecules together” that can be used to explore cells, map DNA, and create drugs that can more precisely target diseases like cancer.
The recipient of this year’s Nobel Prize in literature is the French novelist Annie Ernaux.
Her works that bravely draw on her experiences as a working-class woman to examine life in France during the 1940s were praised by the jury for skillfully fusing fiction and autobiography.
On Monday, the winner of the economics Nobel Prize for 2022 will be revealed.