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)