Belarusian politician and opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has been awarded the Tipperary International Peace Award in recognition of her ongoing struggle for democracy in Belarus.
The announcement of the latest recipient of the prestigious prize has been made on International Women's Day to the woman who ran in the 2020 Belarusian presidential election after her husband Sergei Tsikhanousky was arrested and imprisoned when he announced his intention to contest the election.
Ms Tsikhanouskaya spent much time in north Tipperary as a child.
She was brought over to stay in the area among those supported by charities who were taking a break from radiation-hit areas following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
As part of a visit to Ireland in 2021 when she met political leaders in Dublin, she went back to Roscrea and met with her host family. Her husband remains in solitary confinement in prison in Belarus.
Martin Quinn of the Tipperary Peace Convention said the awarding of the Peace Prize to Ms Tsikhanouskaya is a statement of support for the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom of assembly in Belarus.
"The torture and ill treatment of men, women and children in Belarus, along with the system of unfair and closed trials and the imprisonment of those that speak out against the regime, as brought to prominence by Ms Tsikhanouskaya, has highlighted the brutality of the Lukashenka regime and its crackdown on protestors and those who speak out against them."
Past recipients of the Tipperary award include the late Nelson Mandela, Pakistani student Malala Yousafzai, the late ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith and her brother the late senator Edward Kennedy, former presidents Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese, and former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.
The 2022 award will be presented to Ms Tsikhanouskaya at a ceremony in Tipperary in May.
"This award is not only given to me, it is given to millions of free people of Belarus, who have been fearlessly and selflessly resisting tyranny for the past three years," she said in a statement.
"I'm proud of them and I thank the Tipperary Peace Committee and Ireland for this recognition."
Tipperary Peace Convention has also announced that it is to recognise the Irish Defence Forces for 65 years service on peacekeeping missions in different parts of the world since 1958.
A special presentation to honour their service and contribution to peacekeeping will be made on the occasion of the presentation of the Tipperary International Peace Award in May.
