Oleksandra Matviichuk: COURAGE III - JUSTICE AS WEAPON

Tessa Szyszkowitz in conversation with Oleksandra Matviichuk





COURAGE III: JUSTICE AS WEAPON
Documenting Russian war crimes in Ukraine to fight
violence and occupation





For Oleksandra Matviichuk war and peace are a matter of law and
justice. Her Center for Civil Liberties has been documenting
Russian war crimes in Ukraine – often atrocities committed
against women – in the hope of bringing the perpetrators to
justice. After the beginning of the Russian invasion in February
2022, Matviichuk together with other partners created the
‘Tribunal for Putin’ initiative in order to document
international crimes under the Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court in all regions of Ukraine which became the targets
of attacks of the Russian Federation.





Oleksandra Matviichuk is a human rights lawyer, head of the
Center for Civil Liberties that works to defend freedom and human
dignity in Ukraine and the OSCE region. She has experience in
creating horizontal structures for massive involvement of people
in human rights activities against attacks on rights and
freedoms, as well as a multi-year practice of documenting
violations during armed conflict. She is the author of a number
of reports to various UN bodies, the Council of Europe, the
European Union, the OSCE and the International Criminal Court.
The Center for Civil Liberties, founded in 2007, also pushes for
proposals for legislative reforms in order to establish a more
democratic Ukraine. For Matveiichuk, elections for president and
parliament should be held as soon as possible – once a just
ceasefire including security guaraantees for Ukraine is achieved.


After the beginning of Russian full-scale invasion, Matviichuk
together with other partners created the ‘Tribunal for Putin’
initiative in order to document international crimes under the
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in all regions
of Ukraine, including the occupied territories.





In 2016 she received the Democracy Defender Award for „Exclusive
Contribution to Promoting Democracy and Human Rights“ from OSCE.
In 2017 she became the first woman to participate in the
Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program of Stanford University. In
2022 Oleksandra Matviichuk was awarded with the Right Livelihood
Award, the Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament and
recognized as one of the 25th influential women in the world by
Financial Times. In 2022 she received the Nobel Peace Prize for
the work of her organization the Center for Civil Liberties. In
2025 she received the Dutch Auschwitz Award.





Oleksandra Matviichuk, human rights lawyer,
head of the Center for Civil Liberties, Nobel Peace Prize
recipient (2022)





Tessa Szyszkowitz, author and UK
correspondent for the Austrian weekly Falter. Her latest book was
“Echte Engländer – Britain and Brexit” (2018)