Ales Bialiatski

Ales Viktaravich Bialiatski is a pro-democracy activist in Belarus fighting for human rights in his role at the Viasna Human Rights Centre. Bialiatski was a founding member of Viasna and the Belarusian Popular Front, which he led from 1996 to 1999. The New York Times has called Bialiatski “a pillar of the human rights movement in Eastern Europe.”

Bialiatski’s defense of human rights in Belarus has been recognized with multiple awards, including the Right Livelihood Award in 2020 and the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. In 2023, Bialiatski was sentenced to ten years in prison on charges of “cash smuggling” and “financing actions and groups that grossly violated public order.” These charges are widely viewed as fabricated in an effort to silence Bialiatski and his movement after he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.