Human rights activists in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, economists with experience of financial crises and a trio who drove breakthroughs in click chemistry were honored Saturday with the first in-person presentation of Nobel Prizes in two years.
Carl-Henrik Heldin, chairman of the board of the Nobel Foundation, called it a «special» year and highlighted the return to an in-person event before noting that, given the turmoil caused by the war in Ukraine, the world needed scientists and activists like those being honored.
The events have begun in Oslo, where Peace Prize winners were honored: the now outlawed Russian human rights organization Memorial; the Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) in Kiev; and jailed Belarusian human rights lawyer Ales Bialiatski, head of the human rights organization Viasna.
The chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, has described the laureates as «champions of peace» as they gathered to receive the award. Bialiatski remains in prison and was presented by his wife, Natalia Pinchuk.
CCL President Oleksandra Romantsova and Memorial leader Yan Rachinski were able to personally receive the medals and diplomas at Olso City Hall.
The choice of this year’s award winners was seen as a denunciation of the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
The winners were honored for their many years of work criticizing those in power and defending essential civil rights. The groups went to great lengths to document war crimes, human rights abuses and abuses of power, according to the award jury.
«Together, they demonstrate the importance of civil society for peace and democracy,» said Reiss-Andersen.
Of her imprisoned husband, Pinchuk said, «Ales and all of us recognize how important and risky it is to fulfill the mission of human rights defenders, especially at the tragic time of Russian aggression against Ukraine.»
Pinchuk added that thousands of Belarusians are being oppressed and unjustly imprisoned, while hundreds of thousands are forced to flee to live in a democratic state.
«In my homeland, all of Belarus is in a prison,» she said on behalf of her husband, adding that the award gives all Belarusians hope that they can count on the solidarity of the democratic world.
Romansova, leader of the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties, said in her speech that «peace, progress and human rights are inextricably linked.»
A state that kills journalists, imprisons activists and breaks up peaceful demonstrations is a threat to peace worldwide, according to Romansova.
«The people of Ukraine want peace more than anyone else in the world. But peace cannot be achieved by an attacked country laying down its arms,» she added, referring to Russia’s bloody invasion of her country. «This would not be peace, but occupation.»
Rachinski, the Russian leader of Memorial, said the award has great symbolic significance for the group: «It underlines that state borders cannot and should not divide civil society,» although he questioned whether the organization’s work «was worth it to prevent the catastrophe of February 24.»
Memorial, an internationally recognized group, was disbanded last year by order of Russian authorities for allegedly violating the law by refusing to carry the Kremlin-mandated «foreign agent» title.
Events then moved to Stockholm where Sweden’s Svante Pääbo received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in the study of human evolution.
Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger, scientists based in France, the United States and Austria, accepted the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in quantum information science.
Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless were this year’s winners of the chemistry prize for their work on click chemistry, a tool for building molecules.
French author Annie Ernaux was the literature winner for her writing based on personal memories, and the Nobel Prize in economics went to Ben Bernanke, Douglas W. Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig for their research on financial crises.
