OSLO: A trio of human rights watchdogs from Bela­rus, Russia and Ukraine won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, a highly symbolic choice of laureates drawn from three nations at the centre of the war in Ukraine.

The honour went to deta­ined activist Ales Bialiatski of Belarus, Russian rights group Memorial and Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties, which is recording the toll of the conflict on the nation.

“They have made an outstanding effort to document war crimes, human right abuses and the abuse of power,” the head of the Norwegian Nobel Comm­ittee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, told reporters.

“Together they demonstrate the significance of civil society for peace and democracy,” she added.

As predicted by experts, the committee’s choice of laureates this year marked a stinging criticism of Mos­cow’s invasion of Ukraine, which has plunged Europe into its worst security crisis since World War II.

But the five-member committee stopped short of criticising Russian President Vladimir Putin directly.

Reiss-Andersen called his regime an “authoritarian government that is suppressing human rights activists”, stressing that the committee wanted to highlight the “way civil society and human rights advocates are being suppressed.”

The Nobel committee also called on Belarus to release Bialiatski, 60, the founder of rights group Viasna whose work has charted the increasingly authoritarian tendencies of President Alexander Lukashenko and his security forces.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2022