Ales Bialiatski and Viasna win Right Livelihood Award

The Swedish Right Livelihood Foundation named today the winners of its annual award, popularly called the Alternative Nobel Prize.

This year’s laureates include the Human Rights Center "Viasna" and its chairman Ales Bialiatski.

Other laureates are the imprisoned Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, US civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson and indigenous rights and environmental activist Lottie Cunningham Wren of Nicaragua.

Human rights activist Ales Bialiatski and the Human Rights Center “Viasna” have been awarded “for their resolute struggle for the realisation of democracy and human rights in Belarus.”

“The award coming at this dramatic moment in the history of Belarus is an important support for the entire Belarusian society, which today is struggling for democratic change, seeking to ensure that human rights are respected in Belarus,” Ales Bialiatski said in a comment.