On October 7, the Nobel Committee has named Belarusian lawyer and activist Ales Bialiatski and Russian Memorial Center and Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties as the winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
History of Memorial Center
The Memorial Center was established in August 1987 in Moscow with the claim of commemorate “the victims of Soviet-era oppression”. Then similar groups emerged in other parts of the USSR.
On 28-30 January 1989, Memorial was named “All-Union Voluntary History and Education Society Memorial” at a conference in Moscow. Their goal was to “preserve and keep the memory of the victims of Stalinism alive”, “to help to the victims of oppression” and “to erect memorial sites and restore historical monuments for the victims of Soviet terrorism in Moscow and on the territory of the USSR.”
One of the founders and the first president of the organization was also a Nobel laureate academician Andrei Sakharov. Sakharov is known for his speech at the Congress of People’s Deputies in 1989, in which he praised the Afghan mujahideen.
Memorial engaged in building a database for the “victims of political oppression” of the Soviet era and conducted various charitable programs.
On April 19, 1992, two separate legal entities named Memorial – International Historical and Educational, Charity and Human Rights Society and Memorial Human Rights Center (HRC) were established in Moscow.
In 2014, under Russia’s “Foreign Agent” Law, Memorial Human Rights Center was added to the list of organizations that are financed from abroad. International Historical and Educational, Charity and Human Rights Society was also included in the list in 2016.
Memorial was liquidated in December last year for violating relevant legislation. The benefactors of the organization include the Open Society Foundation, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the German Heinrich Böll Foundation.
Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties
Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) was established on 30 May 2007. Its headquarters are in Kiev. The Center describes its mission as the establishment of “human rights, democracy, and solidarity” in Ukraine and the introduction of European values “in the OSCE region”.
During the Maidan coup in 2014, CCL lawyers represented the detained protesters. Activities of Ukrainian law enforcement, courts, and local self-government are also in the scope of CCL’s efforts.
Since August 2020, the organization has been gathering information about “human rights violations”, offering support for the color revolution attempt in Belarus.
CCL, and several other Ukrainian NGOs, are among the members of the European-scale CivilMPlus platform. The aim of the platform is given as “promoting the unification of civil initiatives” for the reintegration of Donetsk and Luhansk into Ukraine.
Among the benefactors of CCL is the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which is widely referred to as the “shadow CIA”.
Ales Bialiatski
Ales Bialiatski was born on 25 September 1962, in Karelia, to a Belarusian family. He moved to Belarus with his family in 1965. He graduated from the philology department of Gomel State University in 1984 and received a PhD from the Belarusian Academy of Sciences in 1989. He was one of the founding members of NGOs such as “Martyrology of Belarus” (1988) and the “Belarusian Catholic Community” (1990).
In 1996, he founded and led the human rights organization “Viasna-96”. Later, he led the Working Group of the Assembly of Democratic NGOs (2000–2004) and was vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH; 2007-2016).
In August 2011, Bialiatski was arrested under charges of tax evasion. Bialiatski’s arrest was condemned by European Union countries, the European Parliament, and international human rights organizations.
On 23 November 2011, the Belarusian courts sentenced Bialistski to 4 years and 6 months in prison for confiscation of property. The decision was condemned by the EU countries and the United States, prominent international human rights organizations. He was released on 21 June 2014.
He continued his activities after being released. He became a member of the Coordination Council of opposition established after the color revolution attempts that started in Belarus after the 2020 presidency.
He is in detention since July 2021 and has been charged with financing smuggling and organized crime, which has largely violated public order.
