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29.01.2022

The International Auschwitz Committee is wholeheartedly supporting the proposal to award MEMORIAL the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.

 
 
The International Auschwitz Committee is supporting the nomination of MEMORIAL for the award of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. Image: IAC Berlin

The International Auschwitz Committee is supporting the nomination of MEMORIAL for the award of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. Image: IAC Berlin

 

 

 

Representatives from almost every party in the Estonian parliament have issued a joint press statement nominating the Russian human rights organization MEMORIAL for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.

In the reasoning they stated that MEMORIAL is the oldest, highly esteemed institution in Russian civil society, and as such has long since become a symbol of hope and freedom for many people in Russia. It has consistently worked for a peaceful world in which the dignity of all people is safeguarded. Consequently, members of MEMORIAL not only made public the torture and murderous excesses in Chechnya but also protested against the invasion of Georgia by Russian troops and against the aggression towards the Ukraine in 2014.

The proposal also said that MEMORIAL’s main concern has always been to ensure that when resolving conflicts the dignity and integrity of all participants be safeguarded. However, while pursuing their aims, which included helping refugees, members of MEMORIAL were repeatedly persecuted and attacked by Russian state institutions, to the point of being banned. The statement said it is in this context that MEMORIAL repeatedly spotlighted the direct link between an aggressive foreign policy and the destruction of civil society organizations in the home country.The proposal also said that MEMORIAL’s main concern has always been to ensure that when resolving conflicts the dignity and integrity of all participants be safeguarded. However, while pursuing their aims, which included helping refugees, members of MEMORIAL were repeatedly persecuted and attacked by Russian state institutions, to the point of being banned. The statement said it is in this context that MEMORIAL repeatedly spotlighted the direct link between an aggressive foreign policy and the destruction of civil society organizations in the home country.

Speaking in Berlin, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee said:

"Auschwitz survivors throughout the world have been following the work of the dedicated people in MEMORIAL for many years with great respect and sympathy. MEMORIAL has long since become a moral authority in the Russian Republic, in Belarus and in the rest of Europe, and it has become a political reality that has not only exposed the crimes of the Stalinist purges but also once again given many victims and their relatives hope and human dignity.

Despite persecutions and bans, the people working with MEMORIAL are standing up, fearlessly and incorruptibly, for the right and the dignity of all people to live together equally in a peaceful world. In this way MEMORIAL has become an important beacon of hope for generations of people in Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine and in Europe as a whole.

The International Auschwitz Committee is wholeheartedly supporting the proposal to award MEMORIAL the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize."