The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Belarusian political activist Ales Bialiatski, as well as two human rights organizations, Memorial in Russia and the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine.
Associate professor Valzhyna Mort, a poet born in Belarus, can speak to the political repression in Belarus and the significance of Ales Bialiatski’s activism on human rights.
Mort says that the Viasna Human Rights Center, founded by Bialiatski, "was ‘liquidated’ by Lukashenka’s regime in 2003 but has continued to fight for human rights in Belarus under the great pressure of the regime. The prosecution of Viasna continues.
“I hope that this award will galvanize international support for Ales Bialiatski and Viasna and bring the release of these political prisoners. They should be at home, with their people, many of them are seriously ill. Lukashenka’s regime is killing them in jail.”
For interviews contact Lindsey Knewstub, cell: 607-269-6911, lmh267@cornell.edu.
Serge Petchenyi/Cornell University
From left, Xi Yang, PhD '10, senior lecturer of finance in the SC Johnson College of Business; Christine Ye; Christine Ye Award recipient Margaret E. Foster, doctoral candidate in communication; Cornelia Ye Award recipient Naman Agrawal, doctoral candidate in neurobiology and behavior; Cornelia Ye; and Derina Samuel, associate director of graduate student development at the Center for Teaching Innovation.
NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)
Artist concept of the gas giant planet WD 1856 b orbiting a white dwarf star. The planet is 7 times larger than the Earth-sized white dwarf it orbits. WD 1856 b has methane and hazes in its atmosphere, which would give it a similar color to Saturn's moon Titan. The white dwarf formed from a star that died 5 billion years ago, and has been cooling ever since, giving it an orange colour similar to the Sun.
by Michał Józefaciuk/ The Chancellery of the Senate of the Republic of Poland , Creative Commons licsnese 3.0
Belarusian political activist Ales Bialiatsky, speaking in Poland
