Ales Bialiatski
Speed read
Ales Bialiatski was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his fight for human rights, democracy, and peaceful co-existence. He shares the prize with Memorial and the Center for Civil Liberties.
Full name: Ales Bialiatski
Born: 25 September 1962, Vyartsilya, Karelia, Russia
Date awarded: 7 October 2022
A fearless activist
Ales Bialiatski is a human rights activist from Belarus. He has dedicated his life to fighting for democracy and the rights of political prisoners. In March, 2023, he was sentenced to ten years in prison for smuggling and financing “actions grossly violating public order”. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has clearly stated that the court case and accusations against him are politically motivated.
Bialiatski was one of the key initiators of the democracy movement that emerged in Belarus in the 1980s. After President Alexander Lukashenko was given dictatorial powers in 1996, protests and demonstrations broke out. To support the protesters and their families with legal assistance, Ales Bialiatski started the organisation Viasna (Spring). Since then, Viasna has developed into a broad-based human rights organisation that documents and protests against the authorities’ use of torture against political prisoners. For many, Bialiatski has become a symbol of political imprisonment in Belarus.
| Human rights Rights that apply to all persons regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, religious affiliation or nationality. The most important are the rights enshrined in the UN Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948. |
The situation in Belarus
President Alexander Lukashenko has been in power since 1994. He has complete control over the country’s political institutions, power structures and judiciary. Belarus is often criticised for gross human rights violations.
After the presidential election in 2020, new protests and demonstrations broke out in Belarus. The EU did not recognise the election. Several thousand protesters and opponents of the regime have been beaten up, tortured, imprisoned or sent into exile. An unknown number of protesters have also lost their lives. Only with the help of financial and political support from Russia has Lukashenko managed to hold on to power.
"We need comprehensive changes, both in the state order and the relationship between the people and the power structures in Belarus."
- Ales Bialiatski, interview with Viasna's online magazine
Democracy champion in a dictatorship
Bialiatski has paid a high price for his work. The Belarus authorities have repeatedly tried to silence him. He was imprisoned from 2011 to 2014, and has been put in a labour camp. His participation in new demonstrations in 2020, resulted in him being arrested again in 2021. In March 2023 he was sentenced to ten years in prison. The opposition Bialiatski has faced shows the enormous forces he himself is helping to combat. This has not stopped him. Despite tremendous personal hardship, Bialiatski has not budged an inch in his fight for human rights and democracy in Belarus.
"Hundreds of people have been in my situation. In the future there will probably be even more political prisoners. Maybe that is the price for Belarus to become a democratic country."
- Ales Bjaljatski, interview with Levande Historia magazine
The importance of civil society for peace and democracy
By awarding the Nobel Peace Prize for 2022 to Ales Bialiatski, Memorial and the Center for Civil Liberties, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wanted to honour three outstanding champions of human rights, democracy and peaceful co-existence in the neighbouring countries of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. Through their consistent efforts in favour of humanist values, anti-militarism and principles of law, this year’s laureates have revitalised and honoured Alfred Nobel’s vision of peace and fraternity between nations – a vision dearly needed in the world today.
| Civil society Civil society is a collective term for those parts of society that consist of voluntary organisations, various pressure groups and individuals, who come together to promote a political issue or solve a task together on a voluntary basis. |
Learn more
Watch or read Ales Bialiatski's Nobel Peace Prize lecture, delivered by his wife Natallia Pinchuk.
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Nobel Prizes and laureates
Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.
See them all presented here.
