Boris Kagarlitsky
The Boris Kagarlitsky International Solidarity Campaign is proud that Boris Kagarlitsky was awarded the 2025 Seán MacBride Peace Prize, in company with the brave Palestinian human rights activists, Hania Bitar and Randa Siniora.
The prize is awarded annually by the International Peace Bureau (IPB), of which Seán MacBride, co-founder of Amnesty International, was the chairperson from 1969 to 1974.
Randa Siniora
In her comment on the recipients of the prize, IPB co-president Corazon Valdez Fabros said: “In a world scarred by occupation, genocide, and war, Hania, Randa, and Boris light the path forward. They show us that peace is not the quiet after violence, but the fire of resistance to injustice. Their voices rise where others are silenced. Their courage endures where repression tries to break the human spirit. We honour them and the organizations and sectors they represent — and every person who believes that justice is the only path to peace.”
According to the IPB, “the 2025 award aims to honor those who dedicate their lives to eliminating violence and oppression in their homelands, speaking up about the injustices of occupation and militarism. By honoring their work, IPB emphasizes the need to stop the genocide in Palestine and the war in Ukraine, while highlighting that peace is not only the elimination of violence.”
Hania Al-Bitar
The Boris Kagarlitsky International Solidarity Campaign welcomes the awarding of the Seán MacBride peace prize to Boris as worthy acknowledgement of his brave and principled intransigence: his opposition from the first day to the Russian invasion of Ukraine; his rejection of any plea bargain with the authorities; and his adamant refusal to be part of any prisoner exchange that would involve expulsion from his homeland.
Moreover, Boris Kagarlitsky is also not one outstandingly courageous individual human being, but a representative of a community of moral resistance to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, of those thousands who share with him the cells, deprivations and tortures of the Russian penal system.
Once again, nearly two hundred years after he first wrote them, Alexander Pushkin’s powerful verses retain their relevance for Boris Kagarlitsky and his generation of fighters against authoritarian rule and for peace and social justice.
In the depths of Siberian mines
Keep your proud patience,
Your sorrowful labour will not be wasted,
Nor your lofty aspirations.
Hope, misfortune’s faithful sister,
In the gloomy dungeon
Will awaken cheerfulness and joy:
The long-awaited time will come.
Love and friendship will reach you
Through the gloomy gates,
Just as my free voice reaches
Your pits of penal toil.
The heavy chains will fall,
The dungeons will collapse… and freedom
Welcome you joyfully at the entrance,
And your brothers give you back your sword.
Details of the Prize award ceremony will be announced at a future date.