Center for Civil Liberties (human rights organization)

Center for Civil Liberties was founded in Kyiv, Ukraine on 30 May 2007. 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. One of the organisation's focuses is the updating of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

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.

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.{{Cite web |date=7 October 2022 |title=Belarus, Ukraine, Russia activists win Nobel Peace Prize|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63175334|access-date=7 October 2022 |website=BBC News|language=en}} The organization also started international campaigns for the release of illegally imprisoned people in Russia, Russian-annexed Crimea and Donbas.{{Cite web |last=Todorov |first=Svetoslav |title=Meet Oleksandra Matviichuk from Ukraine|url=https://www.freiheit.org/east-and-southeast-europe/meet-oleksandra-matviichuk-ukraine |date=14 February 2022|access-date=7 October 2022 |website=Friedrich Naumann Foundation|language=en-UK}}{{Cite web|title=Oleksandra Matviichuk|url=https://religiousfreedom.in.ua/public/en/secretariat/co-coordinator|access-date=17 August 2021|website=religiousfreedom.in.ua}}

Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Center for Civil Liberties also started to document Russian war crimes committed during the war.{{Cite web |date=7 October 2022 |title=Nobel peace prize given to human rights activists in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/07/nobel-peace-prize-given-to-human-rights-activists-in-belarus-russia-and-ukraine|access-date=7 October 2022 |website=The Guardian|language=en}} The Norwegian Nobel Committee said in 2022 that the organization was "playing a pioneering role in holding guilty parties accountable for their crimes".{{Cite web |date=7 October 2022 |title=Nobel peace prize 2022 awarded to human rights campaigners in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus – as it happened|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/oct/07/nobel-peace-prize-2022-live-winners|access-date=7 October 2022 |website=The Guardian|language=en}}

On 7 October 2022, the Center for Civil Liberties was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Ales Bialiatski and Russian organization Memorial.{{r|nobelprize}}{{Cite web |date=7 October 2022 |title=Nobel Peace Prize to activists from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine |url=https://www.onmanorama.com/news/world/2022/10/07/nobel-peace-prize-to-activists-from-belarus-russia-ukraine.html |access-date=7 October 2022 |website=Onmanorama}} 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. Matviichuk said that they might have tried but could have been unsuccessful because she and her colleague "were just returning from a business trip."{{cite web |author=Yurii Korogodskyi |title=We hope to create an international tribunal and punish Putin and Lukashenko, – Central Committee on the Nobel Prize|url=https://lb.ua/society/2022/10/08/531945_spodivaiemos_stvoriti_mizhnarodniy.html |website={{ill|Lb.ua|uk|Lb.ua}}|date=8 October 2022|access-date=8 October 2022|lang=Ukrainian}}

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.{{cite web |title=Nobel Peace Laureate Calls for Weapons to Free Ukraine |date=28 November 2022 |url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/11/28/nobel-peace-laureate-calls-for-weapons-to-free-ukraine-a79527 |work=The Moscow Times |access-date=28 November 2022}}

In the spring of 2024, the Center for Civil Liberties was labeled as an “undesirable organization” in Russia.{{cite web|url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/04/17/russia-labels-3-more-human-rights-groups-undesirable-a84874|title=Russia Labels 3 More Human Rights Groups 'Undesirable'|work=The Moscow Times|date=April 17, 2024|accessdate=April 27, 2024}}

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.{{cite web |title=Statute of Centre for Civil Liberties Civil Society Organisation – new version |website= Centre for Civil Liberties |date=27 June 2022 | url= https://ccl.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/statut.pdf | access-date=7 October 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20221007092507/https://ccl.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/statut.pdf |archive-date= 7 October 2022 |url-status=live}} On its web site, the organization mostly calls itself Center for Civil Liberties.

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{{Cite web |title=The Nobel Peace Prize 2022 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2022/press-release/ |access-date=7 October 2022 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}

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{{Nobel Peace Prize laureates}}

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Category:2007 establishments in Ukraine

Category:Political organizations based in Ukraine

Category:Human rights organizations based in Ukraine

Category:Organizations awarded Nobel Peace Prizes

Category:Ukrainian Nobel laureates

Category:Organizations listed in Russia as undesirable