The Russian war crimes determine this year's award of the Alternative Nobel Prize. Ukrainian human rights lawyer Maiviychuk has documented nearly 20,000 cases of murder, torture and terror since 2014. She is counting on Kremlin boss Putin to go to court.
Ukrainian human rights activist Olexandra Matviychuk believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin will one day stand trial for war crimes. "I have no doubt that he will," she said in an online conversation with journalists after she and other honorees were presented with the Right Livelihood Award. This may sound naïve at this point in time. "Many authoritarian leaders in the world think they are untouchable. But history has shown that authoritarian regimes have collapsed and sooner or later their leaders have appeared in court cases."
The Right Livelihood Award, which has been presented in Stockholm since 1980, is often referred to as the Alternative Nobel Prize, but has nothing to do with the actual Nobel Prizes. Every year, the Right Livelihood Foundation honors courageous personalities and organizations who work for human rights, the environment and peace. Matviychuk and the Center for Civil Liberties (CCL), of which she chairs, are recognized for building sustainable democratic institutions in Ukraine and for opening avenues for war crimes to be prosecuted.
Matviychuk, speaking from Kyiv, said that in the past seven months of Russian aggression, 19,000 incidents of war crimes, including torture and attacks on schools and hospitals, had been documented. She wanted to remind that Putin did not just start the war in February 2022, but as early as February 2014 in response to the collapse of the then authoritarian Ukrainian leadership of Viktor Yanukovych. "Putin is not afraid of the idea of NATO, Putin is afraid of the idea of freedom," she said. He started the war to stop Ukraine on its way to democratic transformation.
Previous Right Livelihood award winners include Swedish children's author Astrid Lindgren, US whistleblower Edward Snowden and Stockholm-born climate activist Greta Thunberg. In most cases, however, the Right Livelihood Foundation honors internationally rather unknown personalities and organizations in order to draw attention to them - this time it remains true to this tradition.
In addition to Olexandra Matwijtschuk, the Somali human rights activists Fartuun Adan and Ilwad Elman, the Venezuelan collective Cecosesola and the Africa Institute for Energy Governance (Afiego) from Uganda received the award. The 2022 award winners strengthened and promoted grassroots communities, said the director of the foundation, Ole von Uexküll. "In the face of government failures and the collapse of existing orders - in the form of wars, terrorism, exploitation, massive displacement and economic crises - they are creating new human-centric systems." Their achievements showed how societies could be built on the principle of justice rather than exploitation.
