(The Guardian) Nobel peace prize sends 'powerful message'
Elaine Pearson, Human Rights Watch Asia region director, is speaking to the ABC about the awarding of the Nobel peace prize to Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties, Russian rights group Memorial and jailed Belarusian activist Ales Byalyatski. The award was announced on Human Rights Day. Pearson says: I think that sends a very powerful message that this is not just about … we see all the horrors of the war that is taking place right now in Ukraine, but we don’t always see the actions of the human rights defenders who are documenting those war crimes at great personal risk to themselves. We don’t always see the actions of the human rights defenders who are opposing these war crimes, groups like Memorial. We had to close our office earlier this year, which shows how difficult the climate has become. So I think it’s really meaningful that this award is being shared between three different human rights organisations that are really putting their lives on the line in order to defend human rights.
