Human rights defender and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski has received the Solidarity and Human Rights Award from the European Solidarity Centre. The award was presented during the Kościuszko Forum, which is taking place in Gdańsk, the Viasna human rights centre reported.
The honorary distinction was presented to the chairman of the Viasna human rights centre by the Centre’s director, Magdalena Mistat.
The award is granted to individuals who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to the protection of human rights not only in civil society but also in such fields as culture, science and education.
“This award is a special honour for me. Solidarity with all those whose freedom and dignity are being taken away and humiliated is a principle that I have tried to follow throughout my life. Solidarity in defending fundamental human rights, in defending prisoners of conscience, and in defending a nation’s right to choose its own independent path. I carry within me the values of the shared struggle of the peoples of Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Belarus against Soviet totalitarianism and Russian imperialism. I know with certainty: when solidarity crosses national borders, it cannot be stopped.
The names of previous recipients of this award, the creators and inspirers of Poland’s Solidarity movement in 1980, reached us, participants in the Belarusian independent movement, through the barriers of Soviet censorship. For us, Poland’s Solidarity was proof that resisting evil was both possible and necessary, and that a historic victory would come. To stand alongside you is both an honour and a great responsibility for me, because in my country our mission has not yet been fulfilled. The Belarusian people have not surrendered, as demonstrated by the unprecedented events of 2020, whose spirit lives on,” Bialiatski said.
