Co-laureate of the 2022 Nobel Peace prize, with Russia's Memorial and the Ukrainian Centre for Civil Liberties (CCL). He is a Belarusian activist who was imprisoned without charge in 2021 during protests against Alexander Lukashenko. He founded Belarus rights group Viasna ("spring") in 1996, after Lukashenko came to power. He is one of 1,348 people who Viasna says are political prisoners in Belarus.