With this decision, the Nobel Committee remains below the possible

"I would like to be able to create a substance or a machine with such a terrible, massively devastating effect that it would make wars impossible at all" - the possibility of destruction to secure peace, that's how Alfred Nobel found his way to a better one more than 100 years ago presented to the world. Such a weapon with "terrible" effects has long existed, and yet there is war in Europe. Nobel evidently underestimated human ingenuity and overestimated human reason.

A few hours after US President Joe Biden warned of an "Armageddon", the Norwegian committee announced this year's Nobel Peace Prize winners on Friday. It honored Belarusian human rights lawyer Ales Byalyatsky and two human rights organizations, Memorial from Russia and the Center for Civil Liberties from Ukraine. The committee has decided to honor civil society courage, the courage of many individuals against dictatorial arbitrariness and violence. At the same time, however, the committee hides behind these many, remains below the possible with the at least symbolic effectiveness of the award.

In Belarus, Maria Kolesnikova is in a penal colony, sentenced to eleven years in prison. She is one of the leaders of the democracy movement and is one of the three women who defied Belarusian dictator Lukashenko in the 2020 elections. Even now, out of captivity, she raises her voice against the system. As does Alexei Navalny, who is serving a nine-year sentence in a Russian penal colony. His crime: opposition to Putin.

Dictatorships can imprison resisters, but not their resistance. Honoring Kolesnikova and Navalny would therefore have been a strong signal. A signal that they will not be forgotten, that they will be seen by the world public despite prison bars. Because their fight for democracy is also a weapon that makes peace possible.