Nobel Peace Prize Is Awarded to Rights Advocates in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus

Ales Bialiatski, a human rights advocate from Belarus, shared this year’s prize with Memorial, a Russian humans rights organization, and the Center for Civil Liberties, a Ukrainian organization.Anders Wiklund/EPA, via Shutterstock

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to the human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, the Russian human rights organization Memorial and the Ukrainian rights organization Center for Civil Liberties, in what was one of the most closely watched announcements in the prize’s recent history as war rages in Europe. The committee said it had chosen the three laureates because it wanted to honor the champions of “human rights, democracy and peaceful co-existence” in the neighboring countries Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. /BGNES