The Ukrainian activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oleksandra Matviichuk, International Award of the ARA newspaper

BarcelonaOleksandra Matviichuk (Kyiv, 1983) has been chosen for the ARA newspaper's International Award "for her courageous defense of human rights and the freedoms of the Ukrainian people in the face of Russian military aggression," according to the justification for the award, which in its first edition last year went to the Greek-Swedish writer Theodor Kallifatides. While back then the figure of a Mediterranean migrant welcomed and integrated into the continental north, and turned into a literary and humanist benchmark, was highlighted, now the award goes to a prominent figure and the Center for Civil Liberties that she directs. Oleksandra Matviichuk and the aforementioned center have been—and are—crucial in the Ukrainian struggle for self-defense, a struggle in which all of Europe's democratic destiny is at stake.

Director of the Ukrainian non-governmental organization Center for Civil Liberties, which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, Oleksandra Matviichuk has been linked to it practically since its foundation in 2007. Five years later, in 2012, she became a member of the advisory council under the Commissioner for Human Rights of the national Parliament of Ukraine. She was also vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights.

A human rights lawyer, the ARA award also highlights "the work of documenting war crimes committed during the Russian invasion," a job that "has been key to giving visibility to the victims and to ensuring that one day those responsible for the atrocities committed will answer before justice, a justice whose independence she has always defended."

Likewise, the ARA emphasizes the "tenacity and perseverance" of Matviichuk in the midst of a war that will have been going on for five years next February. Against discouragement and fatigue, Oleksandra Matviichuk has maintained "a coherent discourse in favor of peace and democracy, in favor of Europeanism and international law, while, in the midst of an increasingly dehumanizing global policy, she has known how to place moving human stories at the center of global debate," evaluates the award verdict.

Matviichuk, 43, will receive the award in person during the course of the ARA Night that will be held in the symphonic hall of the Palau de la Música Catalana on the evening of November 19th. During the gala, the Carles Capdevila education awards, the Tatiana Sisquella social initiative awards, and the Ignasi Pujol awards for entrepreneurship and innovation projects will also be presented.