Ales Bialiatski, the jailed leader of Vesna, the most prominent human rights group in Belarus, stands in a cage during a court session in Minsk, Belarus, Nov. 24, 2011.SAVETEXT SIZECOMMENTSHARETWEETEMAILPRINT

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OSLO, Norway — This year's Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to jailed Belarus rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the Russian group Memorial and the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties, a strong rebuke to Russia's President Vladimir Putin on his 70th birthday.

Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the panel wanted to honor "three outstanding champions of human rights, democracy and peaceful coexistence in the neighbor countries Belarus, Russia and Ukraine."

"Through their consistent efforts in favor of human values and anti-militarism and principles of law, this year's laureates have revitalized and honored Alfred Nobel's vision of peace and fraternity between nations, a vision most needed in the world today," she told reporters in Oslo.

Bialiatski was one of the leaders of the democracy movement in Belarus in the mid 1980s and has continued to campaign for human rights and civil liberties in the authoritarian country. He founded the non-governmental organization Human Rights Center Viasna and won the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes referred to as the "Alternative Nobel," in 2020.

Bialiatski was detained following protests that year against the re-election of Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Putin. He remains in jail without trial.

Despite tremendous personal hardship, Mr Bialiatski has not yielded one inch in his fight for human rights and democracy in Belarus," Reiss-Andersen said, adding that the Nobel panel was calling on Belarusian authorities to release him.

She said the Nobel Committee was aware of the possibility that by awarding him the prize Bialiatski might face additional scrutiny from authorities in Belarus.