Ales Bialiatski of Viansa, a winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize

Congratulations to Ales Bialiatski of Viansa, a winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize!

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said:

“Ales Bialiatski was one of the initiators of the democracy movement that emerged in Belarus in the mid-1980s. He has devoted his life to promoting democracy and peaceful development in his home country. Among other things, he founded the organisation Viasna (Spring) in 1996 in response to the controversial constitutional amendments that gave the president dictatorial powers and that triggered widespread demonstrations. Viasna provided support for the jailed demonstrators and their families. In the years that followed, Viasna evolved into a broad-based human rights organisation that documented and protested against the authorities’ use of torture against political prisoners.

“Government authorities have repeatedly sought to silence Ales Bialiatski. He was imprisoned from 2011 to 2014. Following large-scale demonstrations against the regime in 2020, he was again arrested. He is still detained without trial. Despite tremendous personal hardship, Mr Bialiatski has not yielded an inch in his fight for human rights and democracy in Belarus.”

Ales Bialiatski, several of his Viasna colleagues, and more than 1,300 other political prisoners remain unjustly detained by the regime in Belarus. We call for their immediate release and for the authorities in Minsk to stop persecuting the people of Belarus.