Center for Civil Liberties

The Nobel Peace Prize 2022
Co-nobelists: Ales Bialiatski and Memorial [organization]

Ukrainian human rights organization. Founded by nine human rights leaders in different countries of former Soviet Union. Chair: Ukrainian woman attorney Oleksandra Matviichuk. Pressure Ukrainian government to make the country more democratic.

"Ordinary people do have far more influence than they think they do." - Oleksandra Matviichuk

The Center for Civil Liberties

Bio by Lalitha M. Kutty, M.S. [Library & Information Science], M.A. [English Literature]

The Center for Civil Liberties (CCL), along with the Russian human rights organization, Memorial and the human rights and pro-democracy activist Ales Bialiatski, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. This was the first ever Nobel Prize awarded to a Ukrainian citizen or organization. The Center for Civil Liberties is a non-partisan, independent, not-for-profit organization based in Kyiv, Ukraine.

The Prize for Peace is conferred by the Norwegian Nobel Committee to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” The Nobel Prize website states that: “the Peace Prize laureates represent civil society in their home countries. They have for many years promoted the right to criticise power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens. They have made an outstanding effort to document war crimes, human right abuses and the abuse of power. Together they demonstrate the significance of civil society for peace and democracy.” Berit Reiss-Andersen, the Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee stated, “through their consistent efforts in favor of human values, anti-militarism and principles of law, this year’s laureates have revitalized and honored Alfred Nobel’s vision of peace and fraternity between nations.”

The Center for Civil Liberties [CCL] was founded on May 30, 2007 in Kyiv, Ukraine, to promote the values of human rights. The Center states that its mission is “the establishment of human rights, democracy, and solidarity in Ukraine and the OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] region for the affirmation of human dignity.” Some of the organization’s activities include: promoting reforms in the field of the rule of law; aligning national legislation in accordance with human rights standards to meet European Union and Council of Europe standards; documenting war crimes during the Russian armed aggression; conducting training on human rights and democracy; and monitoring the activities of the police, courts and local self-government authorities. The objectives of CCL are “protection of fundamental rights and freedoms; representation of the public and public control over the observance of human rights in the activities of national and local governments; work with young people to create a new generation of human rights defenders and civil society activists; advocacy and education on human rights and democracy and implementation of programs of international solidarity.”

The Center wanted to ensure that Ukraine developed into a full-fledged democracy. The Center is engaged in introducing legislative amendments in an attempt to make Ukraine more democratic, to improve the public control of law enforcement agencies and the judiciary and updating the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

During the 2013-2014 Euromaidan protests, the Center started a grass roots initiative, the Euromaidan SOS project to provide legal support to illegally persecuted Euromaidan activists who took part in the protests and to monitor abuses done by then-president Viktor Yanukovych's security forces. The protests were sparked by President Viktor Yanukovych's sudden decision not to sign the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement, instead choosing closer ties to Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union. The Euromaidan SOS initiative documented human rights violations during the protests, and coordinated international solidarity actions in support of Ukrainian protesters in 2013-2014. The Center united several thousand people and during all three months of the protest defended the participants persecuted by the authorities in various regions of the country. With the end of the active phase of protests on the Maidan, the Euromaidan SOS initiative has begun monitoring human rights violations in the Crimea and Donbas.

In 2014, during the time that Russia occupied Crimea and part of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the Center sent its own mobile teams to document war crimes in Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions. During this time, the Center collected stories of people who survived captivity, stories from families who suffered as well as stories of those who witnessed war crimes.

In 2014, the Center launched the #LetMyPeopleGo campaign to raise awareness about the political persecution of Ukrainian citizens in Russia, Crimea, and Donbas. The Center is also actively working to free illegally enslaved Ukrainians. The #SaveOlegSentsov international campaign was one of the most successful examples of the advocacy work of the Center. Thousands of people in about 40 countries of the world simultaneously organized demonstrations with a common appeal to their governments to help release Oleg Sentsov and other political prisoners. In the end, Oleg Sentsov was released along with 34 other political prisoners. The Center has also mapped the disappearance of activists and journalists in Ukraine since 2014.

Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Center also started to document Russian war crimes. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said in 2022 that the Center was "playing a pioneering role in holding guilty parties accountable for their crimes.” This work was carried out in cooperation with bodies such as the International Criminal Court. The Center also engaged in important efforts to document the forced relocation of civilians from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia.

The Center for Civil Liberties is led by a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, Oleksandra Matviichuk, who received the Democracy Defender Award from the OSCE in 2016.

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