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Live Reporting

Edited by James FitzGerald

All times stated are UK

  1. What happened today?

    Video content

    Video caption: WATCH: Moment Nobel Peace Prize 2022 winners announced

    Thanks for following our live coverage of the Nobel Peace Prize announcements in Oslo.

    Here's a look back at what happened today.

    • The winners of this year's peace prize were revealed to be Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski; the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties (CGS) which documents alleged war crimes; and Memorial, a rights group banned in Russia
    • Bialiatski's wife said she was "overwhelmed with emotion"; his compatriot, the dissident Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, said it represented "important recognition"
    • CGS said it was proud of the accolade and called for an international tribunal to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin to justice
    • Memorial was notified of the prize on the same day that its staff attended a court case in Moscow relating to the seizure of the group's premises. The organisation was broken up by Russia's judiciary late last year
    • Belarus said the prize's founder Alfred Nobel would be "turning in his grave"; a Russian presidential adviser said the prize was meaningless
    • The United Nations has said it will appoint a special expert to monitor human rights in Russia

    Today's page was brought to you by Ruchira Sharma, Laura Gozzi, Alys Davis, Anna Boyd, Jennifer McKiernan, James Harness and James FitzGerald.

  2. Zelensky adviser questions joint prize

    An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has questioned the Nobel Committee's choices, after the peace prize was given to Russian organisation and a Belarusian campaigner alongside Ukraine's own Center for Civil Liberties.

    Quote Message: The Nobel Committee certainly has an interesting understanding of the word 'peace' if the prize is jointly received by representatives of two countries that attacked a third. Neither Russian nor Belarusian organisations have been able to organise resistance to this war. The Nobel this year is just 'super' from Mikhailo Podolyak
    Mikhailo Podolyak

    Russia's invasion of Ukraine was launched in part from Belarus, although Belarusian troops themselves have not been involved.

  3. Putin adviser suggests Memorial turn Nobel down

    More now from Russian presidential adviser Valery Fadeev, who's been criticising the Nobel Committee and the recipients of its peace prize.

    Fadeev told the Tass news agency that the organisation of Belarusian activist Ales Bialatski was "tasked with destroying Belarusian statehood".

    Commenting on Memorial - a rights group banned in Russia - Fadeev said: "I would like to advise Memorial to turn the prize down, if it wants to preserve at least some positive memories of itself".

  4. Putin adviser says Nobel Peace Prize 'not meaningful'

    One of President Putin's advisers, Valery Fadeev, has criticised the Nobel Committee and the prize it announced today, saying that "it has ceased to be a meaningful prize" and "has finally discredited itself with today's decision."

    Fadeev told Russian state news agency Tass that while in the past the prize was awarded to "quite serious people", it has now gone to a "Ukrainian supposedly human rights organization".

  5. Nobel-winning Ukrainian calls for Putin's prosecution

    Olexandra Matviychuk

    A leader at Ukraine's Center for Civil Liberties - a group which was one of the Nobel Peace Prize winners announced earlier today - has called for Russian President Vladimir Putin to face trial over his invasion of Ukraine.

    In a post on Facebook, Olexandra Matviychuk writes: "We need to create an international tribunal and bring Putin, Lukashenko and other war criminals to justice."

    Alexander Lukashenko is the president of neighbouring Belarus and Putin's long-term ally.

    Matviychuk adds that she's "delighted" to receive the award.

  6. What's the situation in Belarus?

    Security forces stand guard as people protest in Minsk, Belarus in August 2020
    Image caption: Protests in August 2020 were suppressed with a brutal crackdown

    As we've been reporting, Ales Bialiatski was earlier named one of the winners of this year's Nobel Peace Prize - for his human rights activism in Belarus.

    So what's been going on in the Eastern European country?

    • In 1996, the country witnessed a brutal crackdown on street protests against the authoritarian government of President Alexander Lukashenko
    • Lukashenko - described in the West as Europe's last dictator - has ruled Belarus with an iron fist since 1994 and has been accused of supressing democracy
    • Massive street protests erupted again in August 2020 over a discredited presidential election - with demonstrators violently arrested
    • Dozens of independent journalists and bloggers were also prosecuted and imprisoned - and nearly 500 websites, including those of major international news outlets - were blocked for their independent reporting, according to Amnesty International
    • There were widespread claims of officials torturing detainees. Lukashenko himself admitted to the BBC last year that violence had been used on protesters
  7. Alfred Nobel is turning in his grave - Belarus

    Belarus has denounced the decision to jointly award the Nobel Peace Prize to the human rights activist Ales Bialiatski - currently in prison in Belarus.

    Writing on social media, a spokesman for the foreign ministry said Nobel - the founder of the prestigious prize - would be "turning in his grave" at the decision.

  8. WATCH: Emotional moment Ukrainian learns of Nobel win

    Video content

    Video caption: WATCH: Norwegian Nobel Institute director Olav Njoelstad broke the news to Oleksandra Romantsova by phone

    Olav Njoelstad, the director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, called Oleksandra Romantsova, the general manager of the Center for Civil Liberties, shortly before the prize was announced.

    The Ukrainian-based Center for Civil Liberties has been jointly awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, alongside Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski and the Russian civil liberties group Memorial.

    Watch the above video for Romantsova's emotional response.

  9. Nobel award likely to bolster rights campaigners across Russia

    Steve Rosenberg

    BBC Russia editor

    In Vladimir Putin’s Russia, civil society has been under sustained pressure for several years now. And that’s intensified since the invasion of Ukraine.

    Memorial, Russia’s oldest human rights organisation, fell foul of the Kremlin for its criticism of Russia’s past and by highlighting abuses of the present. That’s why the authorities pushed to get it shut down.

    But Memorial continues to operate - as a movement, a community. The Nobel Peace Prize will provide a much-needed boost, not only to Memorial, but to civil society activists and human rights campaigners across Russia, many of whom have been forced into silence.

    It will also irritate the Kremlin. Today’s announcement is hardly the kind of news President Putin will have appreciated on his 70th birthday.

    But a prestigious international award for a Russian human rights group is unlikely to make the Kremlin leader pause for thought and ease the pressure on Russian civil society.

  10. Ukrainians are 'architects of peace'

    A large group of Ukrainian soldiers pose with their national flag
    Image caption: Kyiv's troops re-raised the Ukrainian flag in Lyman recently, after taking back the key town

    The people of Ukraine are the "main architects of peace", according to a social media post from the Ukrainian presidential chief of staff.

    Andriy Yermak's Telegram post comes after the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties was named a joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize a few hours ago.

    The human rights organisation was lauded for its efforts to identify and document Russian war crimes during the war in Ukraine.

    Yermak adds that the Ukrainians "must be able to exist without aggression."

  11. Prize-winners shine a warning light on repression

    Sarah Rainsford

    BBC Eastern Europe Correspondent

    Awarding this year’s Nobel Prize, the committee said the winners have "promoted the right to criticise power" in their countries.

    In Russia and Belarus, exercising that right is more difficult and dangerous than ever: Memorial has been banned, Ales Bialiatski is in prison.

    In both countries, huge numbers of those who oppose the authorities have fled abroad for safety. Many – most – of those who have stayed and spoken out are behind bars.

    Those honoured in Russia and Belarus today have worked for years to shine a fierce warning light on the rise in repression in both countries.

    Since February, Ukraine’s Centre for Civil Liberties has been documenting the consequences of that – recording the war crimes, committed in Ukraine by Russia, using Belarus as a launchpad.

    Their work is the most devastating illustration of where the crushing of political freedom can lead.

  12. Russian human rights to be monitored by UN special expert

    Russian police officers detain a person during an unsanctioned rally in Moscow
    Image caption: Russian authorities recently clamped down on protests over a partial military mobilisation

    Human rights in Russia - as well as its neighbour and ally Belarus - have been under renewed scrutiny after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to campaigners in both countries.

    Now, the UN Human Rights Council has approved appointing a special expert (known as a rapporteur) to monitor human rights in Russia.

    Today's measure was opposed by Russia as well as China, Cuba, and Venezuela, but was passed by 17 votes to six, with 24 abstentions.

    It's the first time that the Human Rights Council has set up a special rapporteur to look at one of its so-called P5 members, which hold a permanent seat on the Security Council.

    It follows the imposition of tough Russian laws this year that punish people for criticising the Kremlin - and the forced closure of rights groups like Memorial, which jointly won this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

  13. Macron salutes winners' 'unwavering defence' of rights

    French President Emmanuel Macron has praised the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for their "unwavering defence of human rights" in Europe.

    "They know they can count on the support of France," he writes in a tweet.

  14. Bialiatski understands cost of criticising Belarus authorities

    Sarah Rainsford

    BBC Eastern Europe Correspondent

    An image showing a framed photo of Ales Bialiatski
    Image caption: A picture of the joint peace prize winner is now up in the Norwegian Nobel Institute

    Ales Bialiatski has spent years campaigning for human rights in a country where public criticism of the authorities is extremely dangerous.

    The Belarusian activist knows that, personally: he is in prison, because of his work.

    Bialiatski founded his group Viasna in 1996 – to fight for civil liberties and document repression.

    That task has grown and grown.

    Viasna now lists 1,348 names that it considers political prisoners – including Bialitski and two more of its own members.

    I met one of them, Valiantsin Stefanovich, shortly before he was arrested - and remember how bleak his outlook was, but also how determined he was to go on working, helping victims of human rights abuses and keeping a spotlight on the systematic crushing of freedom.

    The authorities in Belarus have proved just as determined to stop that.

  15. Memorial court case under way in Russia

    One of the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize - the banned Russian human rights organisation Memorial - points out that it's in the spotlight today for other reasons, too.

    It says a court case is under way in Moscow today relating to the seizure of the group's premises - even as it receives congratulations from around the world on its Nobel win.

    The group promises an update afterwards.

  16. WATCH: Prize winners 'honour Alfred Nobel's vision of peace'

    Video content

    Video caption: WATCH: Peace Prize winners honour Albert Nobel's vision, says Reiss-Andersen

    Watch the Nobel Peace Prize committee chairwoman commend the joint winners for honouring Alfred Nobel's vision of "peace and fraternity between nations".

    The winners are "champions of human rights, democracy, and peaceful coexistence between countries Belarus, Russia and Ukraine", said Berit Reiss-Andersen.

  17. Right to speak truth to power fundamental - Stoltenberg

    Jens Stoltenberg, the head of the Western military alliance Nato, has congratulated all three winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.

    View more on twitter
  18. Why Memorial?

    Paul Kirby

    Europe digital editor

    A Memorial International supporter, wearing a face masks with the logo of Russia's rights group, stand outside the Moscow City Court where a hearing over liquidation of Memorial's Human Rights Centre is ongoing, in Moscow on December 29, 2021
    Image caption: Memorial was liquidated by Russia last December, but it hasn't gone away

    Memorial - one of the joint Nobel Peace Prize winners - is one of Russia's oldest human rights groups.

    Its liquidation last year by Russia's judiciary was yet another sign of the walls closing in on the country's civil society, ahead of the Kremlin's decision to invade Ukraine.

    Dating back to the late 1980s, Memorial's work focused on the terror of Joseph Stalin's dictatorship and more generally under the Soviet era. For decades it helped uncover the reality of Soviet repression and the many rights abuses committed ever since.

    But under the rule of Vladimir Putin, who saw the fall of communism of one of the great catastrophes of the 20th Century, Memorial became a nuisance in highlighting the crimes of a past he wanted to extol.

    That's why prosecutors accused Memorial of distorting historical memory, rather than its true role in helping millions of families whose lives were traumatised by the Stalin era.

    Awarding the prize to Memorial this year is not unlike the decision to honour liberal Russian newspaper editor Dmitry Muratov in 2021. His newspaper no longer exists in Russia, but is not dead yet. However much Putin wants Memorial to disappear, it too will not go away.

  19. Memorial campaigners welcome award after 'unspeakable attacks'

    A German branch of the Memorial group says it stands with its banned colleagues in Russia - who have jointly won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.

    A statement to Reuters said the award was a recognition of the group's human rights work in the face of "unspeakable attacks and reprisals".

    The win "encourages us in our resolve to support our Russian colleagues to continue their work at a new location, despite the forced dissolution of Memorial International in Moscow," Memorial board member Anke Giesen said.

  20. Ukrainian human rights group 'proud' of Nobel award

    The Ukrainian human rights organisation the Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) - one of three recipients of this year's Nobel Peace Prize - has tweeted after receiving the accolade.

    View more on twitter