Oslo: The Nobel Peace Prize was on Friday awarded to human rights champions Ales Bialiatski of Belarus, Russia’s Memorial group and Ukraine’s Centre for Civil Liberties.
“They have made an outstanding effort to document war crimes, human right abuses and the abuse of power. Together they demonstrate the significance of civil society for peace and democracy”, the head of the Norwegian Nobel committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, told reporters.
Kristian Herbolzheimer, the director of the International Catalan Institute for Peace, told from Brussels that the prize highlighted “the fraternity between these three countries who are facing similar challenges and situations”.
“But beyond that the committee has awarded the relevance of civil society and that goes beyond these three countries. There is a shrinking space for critical voices inside countries all over the world, no matter they are autocracies or democracies,” he said. “Therefore this sends a very powerful message.”
