For Ukraine, for their Freedom and Ours ! - NPO

2022 Nobel Peace Prize Speech

Oleksandra Matviichuk, director of the Center for Civil Liberties

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Iit's time to take responsibility
 

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, distinguished members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, citizens of Ukraine and citizens of the world.

This year, the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates was awaited by the entire Ukrainian nation. We see it as a recognition of the efforts of the Ukrainian people, who have courageously opposed attempts to destroy the peaceful development of Europe, as well as a celebration of the work done by human rights defenders to prevent military threats around the world. We are proud that today, for the first time, the Ukrainian language is heard at the official ceremony.

We receive the Nobel Peace Prize during a war started by Russia. This war has been going on for eight years, nine months and 21 days. For millions of people, words such as "bombings", "torture", "deportation", "filtration camps" have become familiar. But there are no words that can express the pain of a mother who lost her newborn baby in a maternity ward bombardment. A moment earlier, she was cuddling her baby, calling her name, nursing her, breathing in her scent—and the next moment a Russian missile was destroying her entire universe. Now her beloved and longed-for child rests in the smallest coffin in the world.

There are no ready-made solutions to the challenges we and the world face today. People from different countries are also fighting for their rights and freedoms in extremely difficult circumstances. Today, I'm going to at least try to ask the right questions, so we can start looking for those solutions.

I. How can we restore the importance of human rights?

The survivors of the Second World War are no longer of this world today. And current generations have begun to take rights and freedoms for granted. Even in developed democracies, forces challenging the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are gaining ground. However, the safeguard of human rights cannot be ensured once and for all. The values of modern civilization must be permanently protected.

Peace, progress and human rights are inextricably linked. A state that kills journalists, imprisons activists or disrupts peaceful protests is not just a threat to its citizens. Such a state represents a threat to the entire region and to peace throughout the world. The world must therefore respond appropriately to systemic violations. Human rights, in political decision-making, must be as important as economic gain or security. This approach should also be applied in foreign policy.

Russia, which has continued to destroy its own civil society, illustrates these notions very well. But the countries of the democratic world have long turned a blind eye to this situation. They kept shaking hands with Russian leaders, building gas pipelines and doing business as usual. For decades, Russian troops have committed crimes in different countries. They have always gone unpunished. The world did not even react as it should to the act of aggression and the annexation of Crimea, which constituted the first precedent of post-war Europe. Russia believed it could do whatever it wanted.

Today, Russia deliberately inflicts suffering on the civilian population with the aim of ending our resistance and occupying Ukraine. Russian troops intentionally destroy houses, churches, schools, hospitals; they bomb the evacuation corridors, imprison in filtration camps, carry out forced deportations, kidnap, torture and kill in the occupied territories.

The Russian people will be held responsible for this shameful page in their history and their will to restore the old empire by force.

II. How to call a cat, a cat?

The people of Ukraine want peace more than anyone else in the world. But peace cannot be achieved by an attacked country which lays down its arms. It would not be peace, but occupation. After Bucha was released, we found many civilians murdered in the streets and courtyards of their homes. These people were not armed.

We must stop pretending that ongoing military threats are "political compromises". The democratic world is used to making concessions to dictatorships. And that is why the will of the Ukrainian people to resist Russian imperialism is so important. We will not let people in the occupied territories be killed and tortured. The lives of civilians cannot be a "political compromise". Fighting for peace does not mean yielding to the pressure of the aggressor, but protecting people from his cruelty.

In this war, we are fighting for freedom in every sense of the word. And for that, we pay a high price. We, Ukrainian citizens of all nationalities, should not have to discuss our right to a sovereign and independent Ukrainian state and to the development of the Ukrainian language and culture. As human beings, we do not have to wait for approval of our right to determine our own identity and make our own democratic choices. Crimean Tatars and other indigenous peoples should not have to prove their right to live freely in their native Crimean land.

The fight we are waging today is essential: it determines the future of Ukraine. We want our post-war country to allow us to build not rickety structures, but stable democratic institutions. Our values matter most, not when living them is easy, but when it's really hard. We must not become the mirror of the aggressor state.

This is not a war between two states, but a war between two systems - authoritarianism and democracy. We fight for the possibility of building a state in which the rights of everyone are protected, the authorities are accountable, the courts are independent and the police do not brutalize the peaceful demonstrations of students in the central square of the capital.

On the path of the European family, we must overcome the trauma of war and the risks associated with it, and affirm the choice of the Ukrainian people determined by the Revolution of Dignity.

Thirdly. How to ensure peace to the peoples of the world?

The international system guaranteeing peace and security no longer works. Prisoner of conscience, Crimean Tatar Server Mustafaev, and many other people are imprisoned in Russia for their human rights work. For a long time we used the law to protect human rights, but today we have no legal mechanism to stop Russian atrocities. Many human rights activists have therefore been forced to defend what they believe in with guns drawn. For example, my friend Maksym Butkevych, who is now in captivity in Russia. He and the other Ukrainian prisoners of war, as well as all civilians detained, must be released.

The United Nations system, created after the Second World War by its victors, granted unjustified indulgences to certain countries. If we do not want to live in a world where the rules are set by states with greater military capabilities, they must be changed.

We need to start reforming the international system to protect people from wars and authoritarian regimes. We need effective guarantees of security and respect for human rights for the citizens of all States, regardless of their membership in military alliances, their military capacity or their economic power. Human rights must be at the heart of this new system.

And this is not just a task for politicians. Politicians are tempted to avoid looking for complex, time-consuming strategies. They often behave as if global challenges will just go away. But the truth is that they only get worse. We, the people who want to live in peace, should tell the politicians that we need a new architecture of the world order.

We may not have the political tools, but we still have our words and our position. Ordinary people have a lot more influence than they realize. The voices of millions of people from different countries can change world history faster than UN interventions.

Fourth. How to ensure justice for people affected by war?

Dictators are afraid of the idea of freedom. This is why Russia is trying to convince the whole world that the rule of law, human rights and democracy are bogus values. Because they don't protect anyone in this war.

Yes, the law is not working right now. But we don't think it's forever. We need to break this cycle of impunity and change approaches to justice when it comes to war crimes. Lasting peace, which frees from fear and gives hope for a better future, is impossible without justice.

We still see the world through the prism of the Nuremberg Tribunal, where war criminals were not convicted until after the fall of the Nazi regime. But justice should not depend on the resilience of authoritarian regimes. We live in a new century after all. Justice cannot wait.

We need to close the accountability gap and make justice possible for everyone involved. When the national system is overloaded with war crimes. When the International Criminal Court can only try a few selected cases or has no jurisdiction.

War turns people into numbers. We must demand the names of all victims of war crimes. Regardless of their identity, their social status, the type of crime they have suffered and the interest that the media and society have in their case. Because everyone's life is priceless.

The law is a living subject in constant evolution. We must create an international tribunal and bring Putin, Lukashenko and other war criminals to justice. Yes, this is a bold step. But we have to prove that the rule of law works, and that justice exists, even if it is delayed.

Fifth. How can global solidarity become our passion?

Our world has become very complex and interconnected. Right now, people in Iran are fighting for their freedom. In China, people are resisting the digital dictatorship. In Somalia, child soldiers find a peaceful life. They know better than anyone what it means to be human and to defend human dignity. Our future depends on their success. We are responsible for everything that happens in the world.

Human rights require a certain state of mind, a specific perception of the world which determines our thinking and our behavior. Human rights lose their relevance if their protection is left to lawyers and diplomats alone. It is therefore not enough to pass the right laws or create formal institutions. Societal values will always prevail.

This means we need a new humanist movement that would work with society on a meaningful level, educate, build popular support and engage in the protection of rights and freedoms. This movement should bring together intellectuals and civil society activists from different countries, because the ideas of freedom and human rights are universal and know no borders.

This will allow us to create demand for solutions and overcome global challenges together – wars, inequality, breaches of privacy, rising authoritarianism, climate change, etc. This is how we can make this world a safer place. 

We don't want our children to experience wars and suffering. As parents, we must therefore take this responsibility and act, and not pass it on to our children. Humanity has a chance to overcome global crises and build a new philosophy of life.

It is time to assume this responsibility. We don't know how much time we have left.

And since this Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is taking place in times of war, I would like to call on people around the world to show solidarity. You don't have to be Ukrainian to support Ukraine. It is enough to be a human being.

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Oleksandra Matviichuk, Director of the Center for Civil Liberties

Translation intoFrench: Hannah VilenskTo