A powerful, much-used chain, which has been employed in the struggle to draw attention to political prisons who are incarcerated in Russia, has been added to the Nobel Prize Museum’s collection. The Center for Civil Liberties ‒ one of three 2022 Nobel Peace Prize recipients ‒ donated this artefact, which will be on display at the museum this summer.
“Shackles and chains are a very clear symbol of captivity and of the struggle that the Center for Civil Liberties has waged since its founding in 2007,” says Erika Lanner, Director of the Nobel Prize Museum. “We are very happy about this gift, which will help us explain and draw attention to CCL’s work.”
The chain has been used in various activities carried out by CCL since 2014 in response to Russia’s arrests of human rights activists in Crimea. One example is the #SaveOlegSentsov campaign, which gathered thousands of people from 40 countries to demonstrate against the illegal imprisonment of Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov and other political prisoners. In the end, 34 people were released, and one of them was Sentsov. The campaign appealed for support from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and at the same time was a reminder that political prisoners are still being held in Russia.
The democracy and human rights organization CCL was established in 2007 in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. Here you can read more about CCL and the Nobel Peace Prize.