Nobel Peace Prize Winner Oleksandra Matviichuk

"You have to defend the law with weapons"

Oleksandra Matviichuk. Dan Bayer/Aspen Security Forum

Oleksandra Matviichuk is a Ukrainian human rights lawyer and co-recipient of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. She is a human rights lawyer by training who leads the Center for Civil Liberties, a Ukrainian human rights organization.

I caught up with Oleksandra Matviichuk at the Aspen Security Forum, a major international security conference. She spoke on a panel about Ukraine, and at one point challenged National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on the (in her view, painfully slow) provision of F16 fighter jets and advanced weaponry to Ukraine. In our conversation she defended the decision to provide cluster munitions to the Ukrainian military, and again stressed the need for more modern weaponry to defend and liberate Ukraine.

It is somewhat peculiar to see a Nobel Peace Laureate argue so forcefully in favor of providing an army with the weapons it needs to win a war, so I asked her directly how she reconciles her faith in human rights law w…