Center for Civil Liberties (human rights organization)

Center for Civil Liberties
Founded30 May 2007; 17 years ago (2007-05-30)
TypeHuman rights organization
PurposeHuman rights group
HeadquartersKyiv, Ukraine[1]
Chairwoman
Oleksandra Matviichuk
Award(s)Nobel Peace Prize (2022)
Websiteccl.org.ua/en/

The Center for Civil Liberties (Ukrainian: Центр Громадянських Свобод, romanized: Tsentr Hromadyansʹkykh Svobod) is a Ukrainian human rights organization led by the Ukrainian lawyer Oleksandra Matviichuk.[2] It was founded in 2007,[3][4] with the purpose of pressuring Ukraine's government to make the country more democratic.[5][6] The organization was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Ales Bialiatski and Russian organization Memorial.[3][7]

History

Center for Civil Liberties was founded in Kyiv, Ukraine on 30 May 2007.[3][4] The organization is engaged in introducing legislative amendments in an attempt to make Ukraine more democratic and to improve the public control of law enforcement agencies and the judiciary.[5] One of the organisation's focuses is the updating of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.[5]

At the time of the 2013—2014 Euromaidan protests, the group started the Euromaidan SOS project to provide legal support to protesters who took part in the Euromaidan protests and to monitor abuses done by then-president Viktor Yanukovych's security forces.[6]

After the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and the start of the war in Donbas (also in 2014), the organization started documenting political persecution in Crimea and crimes in the territory controlled by the Russian-backed separatist Luhansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic.[8] The organization also started international campaigns for the release of illegally imprisoned people in Russia, Russian-annexed Crimea and Donbas.[5][9]

Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Center for Civil Liberties also started to document Russian war crimes committed during the war.[10] The Norwegian Nobel Committee said in 2022 that the organization was "playing a pioneering role in holding guilty parties accountable for their crimes".[11]

On 7 October 2022, the Center for Civil Liberties was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Ales Bialiatski and Russian organization Memorial.[3][7] This was the first ever Nobel Prize awarded to a Ukrainian citizen or organization. At the time of a 8 October 2022 press conference Center for Civil Liberties head Oleksandra Matviichuk admitted that neither Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy nor any other (Ukrainian) government official had congratulated Center for Civil Liberties on winning the Nobel Prize.[12] Matviichuk said that they might have tried but could have been unsuccessful because she and her colleague "were just returning from a business trip."[12]

In November 2022 Oleksandra Matviichuk called for countries to provide Ukraine with weapons to liberate the occupied territories in Ukraine as the best way to stop the long-lasting crimes being committed by the Russian Federation.[13]

In the spring of 2024, the Center for Civil Liberties was labeled as an “undesirable organization” in Russia.[14]

Name

According to the organization's statute, the organization's full name is Centre for Civil Liberties Civil Society Organisation and the abbreviated denomination is Centre for Civil Liberties.[15] On its web site, the organization mostly calls itself Center for Civil Liberties.

References

  1. ^ "Nobel Committee Champions Human Rights With 2022 Peace Prize". Radio Free Europe. 7 October 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  2. ^ "Oleksandra Matviychuk – Ukraine | Coalition for the International Criminal Court". www.coalitionfortheicc.org. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d "The Nobel Peace Prize 2022". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  4. ^ a b "Ukraine's Center for Civil Liberties becomes one of Nobel Peace Prize laureates". Ukrinform. 7 October 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d Todorov, Svetoslav (14 February 2022). "Meet Oleksandra Matviichuk from Ukraine". Friedrich Naumann Foundation. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  6. ^ a b Specia, Megan; Mykolyshyn, Oleksandra (7 October 2022). "Ukraine's Center for Civil Liberties was documenting rights violations long before Russia's full-scale invasion". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  7. ^ a b "Nobel Peace Prize to activists from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine". Onmanorama. 7 October 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  8. ^ "Belarus, Ukraine, Russia activists win Nobel Peace Prize". BBC News. 7 October 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  9. ^ "Oleksandra Matviichuk". religiousfreedom.in.ua. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  10. ^ "Nobel peace prize given to human rights activists in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine". The Guardian. 7 October 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  11. ^ "Nobel peace prize 2022 awarded to human rights campaigners in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus – as it happened". The Guardian. 7 October 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  12. ^ a b Yurii Korogodskyi (8 October 2022). "We hope to create an international tribunal and punish Putin and Lukashenko, – Central Committee on the Nobel Prize". Lb.ua [uk] (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  13. ^ "Nobel Peace Laureate Calls for Weapons to Free Ukraine". The Moscow Times. 28 November 2022. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
  14. ^ "Russia Labels 3 More Human Rights Groups 'Undesirable'". The Moscow Times. 17 April 2024. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
  15. ^ "Statute of Centre for Civil Liberties Civil Society Organisation – new version" (PDF). Centre for Civil Liberties. 27 June 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 October 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2022.