The Havighurst Center for East European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies welcomes Oleksandra Matviichuk, the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, to campus to deliver the Annual Havighurst Lecture.

Matviichuk leads the human rights NGO Center for Civil Liberties and coordinates the activities of the initiative group Euromaidan SOS.

The Center for Civil Liberties promotes human rights and democracy in Ukraine and the OSCE region. It works on legislative reforms, conducts public oversight of law enforcement agencies and the judiciary, organizes educational initiatives, and implements international solidarity programs.

Euromaidan SOS was established in response to the violent suppression of a peaceful student protest in Kyiv on November 30, 2013. Throughout the three-month mass protests known as the Revolution of Dignity, thousands of volunteers provided round-the-clock legal and humanitarian assistance to persecuted individuals nationwide.

Since the onset of Russian aggression in Ukraine in 2014, the initiative has monitored political persecution in occupied Crimea, documented war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Donbas region, and spearheaded international campaigns like #LetMyPeopleGo and #SaveOlegSentsov to secure the release of political prisoners held by Russian authorities.

In response to the full-scale war beginning in February 2022, Oleksandra Matviichuk and other partners launched the Tribunal for Putin initiative to document international crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in all regions of Ukraine targeted by Russian attacks.

Oleksandra Matviichuk has authored numerous reports submitted to various UN bodies, the Council of Europe, the European Union, the OSCE, and the International Criminal Court.

Awards:

• Democracy Defender Award for "Outstanding Contribution to Promoting Democracy and Human Rights" from OSCE missions (2016)
• Right Livelihood Award (2022)
• Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament (2022)
• Nobel Peace Prize (2022, awarded to the Center for Civil Liberties led by Oleksandra Matviichuk)
• Named one of the 25 most influential women in the world by Financial Times (2022)
• Global Civic Leadership Award (2024)
• Pahl Peace Prize (2024)