Nobel Prize for CCL – for our freedom and yours, Oleksandra Matviychuk

The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize belongs to all Ukrainian people, who are fighting for freedom in all its senses. This was stated by the Head of the “Center for Civil Liberties” Oleksandra Matviychuk during a special press conference dedicated to the laureates of the 2022 Peace Prize, held on October 8.

“Yesterday, the Center for Civil Liberties won the Nobel Peace Prize. Some say that the Ukrainian people should have received this award. I am proud that this is exactly what is happening. The Center for Civil Liberties is a volunteer-driven organization”, – said Head of CCL.
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She emphasized that the prize was awarded not only to the team of the organization, but also to the people who worked with it all these years.

“The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to all people in Ukraine who are currently fighting for freedom in all its senses”, – emphasized the human rights defender.

According to her, modern Ukrainians are fighting “for the freedom to be a free and independent state. For the freedom to develop the Ukrainian language and culture. For the freedom to have one’s own democratic choice and to build a country in which the rights of every person are protected, the government is accountable, the courts are independent, and the police do not beat peaceful student demonstrations”.

Oleksandra Matviychuk reminded that during the Revolution of Dignity, the Center for Civil Liberties launched the Euromaidan SOS initiative to help persecuted protesters across the country only because several thousand people joined us.

“Thanks to support of the people, the Center for Civil Liberties was the first to send mobile teams to document war crimes in Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions”, – she emphasized.

CCL’s head also reminded that thousands of people around the world supported our international #SaveOlegSentsov campaign. These people held demonstrations and other events in more than 35 countries to free film director Oleg Sentsov and other political prisoners.

“I would not wish anyone to live through war, but this difficult time gives us all the opportunity to show our best – from the farmer who’s tractor pulled a Russian tank to the president of the country who refused to leave Kyiv. Now more than ever, we feel what it means to be human”, – said Oleksandra Matviychuk

The head of the CCL emphasized that Russia should be expelled from the UN Security Council for systematic violations of the UN Charter. She notes, that trough all these decades, Russia committed war crimes in Chechnya, Moldova, Georgia, Syria, Mali, Libya, and Ukraine.

“The UN and member states must ensure justice for all victims of war crimes and establish an international tribunal to bring Putin, Lukashenko and all war criminals to justice”, emphasizes Oleksandra Matviychuk.

Ukraine never abandons its people, and that is why we are fighting for the complete liberation of the occupied territories and for the release of all people from the Russian captivity.

Among them:

• Server Mustafaev, Crimean Tatar, coordinator of Crimean Solidarity
• Viktoriya Obidina, a military medic, who was separated from her 4-year-old daughter during the evacuation from AzovStal
• Lyudmyla Huseynova, who protected orphaned children during the occupation and was sentenced to prison for that.

“And thousands of other Ukrainian military and civilians”, – emphasized Oleksandra Matviychuk.

She also stated: “we call on the international community to become their voice and join us in seeking their release. As well as the release of all political prisoners who fought against the authoritarian regimes in Russia and Belarus”.

“All my 20 years of experience fighting for freedom and human rights convincingly show that people have much more influence than they think. All our achievements are thanks to them”, – added the Head of the CCL.

Oleksandra Matviychuk also said: “it’s important of calling a spade a spade. Russia, which has not overcome its imperial complexes, is a threat to Ukraine and the whole world. Just like Belarus, because Lukashenko’s regime surrendered its own country to occupation”.

“Ales Bieliatskyi, Valentin Stefanovych, Marfa Rabkova from Vyasna, Oleg Orlov, Svitlana Hannushkina, Oleksandr Cherkasov, Serhii Davidis from the Memorial for me and the Center for Civil Liberties are people with whom we have been fighting against this threat side by side for many years”, – she said.

Head od CCL added, that Ales Bieliatskyi is behind bars, and the Memorial is banned in Russia.

“This story is about resistance to common evil, about the fact that freedom has no borders, and the values ​​of human rights are universal. That human rights defenders build invisible horizontal connections in their societies to assert freedom and protect people in our part of the world, in which a monster is once again trying to rule. And who will lose sooner or later. And then peace will come”, – said Oleksandra Matviychuk.

“In no way should this award sound like an old narrative about fraternal nations. This story is about something else. This story is about the motto that I heard from my teacher, dissident and philosopher Yevhen Sverstyuk – “For our freedom and yours”, – Oleksandra Matviychuk summarized.