Education
Oleksandra Matviychuk studied at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, graduating in 2007. In 2017, she became the first woman to participate in the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders program at Stanford University.
Personal Journey and Social Engagement
Matviychuk began working for the non-profit organization Center for Civil Liberties in 2007, the year it was founded. In 2012, she became a member of the Advisory Council of the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada).
Following the violent repression of peaceful protests in Independence Square in Kyiv on November 30, 2013, she coordinated the civic initiative Euromaidan SOS. The purpose of Euromaidan SOS was to provide legal assistance to the victims of Euromaidan in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, as well as to collect and analyze information to protect protesters and provide preliminary assessments of the situation. Since then, Matviychuk has led numerous international mobilization campaigns for the release of prisoners of conscience and individuals unlawfully detained in Russia, occupied Crimea, and Donbass. She has authored several reports for various United Nations bodies, the Council of Europe, the European Union, the OSCE, and numerous appeals to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
On June 4, 2021, Matviychuk was appointed to the United Nations Committee Against Torture, making history as the first Ukrainian candidate for this UN treaty body.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Matviychuk appeared in numerous international media outlets to represent Ukrainian civil society, particularly in relation to issues concerning internally displaced persons, war crimes, and other human rights matters. According to Foreign Policy, she has advocated for the establishment of a special “hybrid tribunal” to investigate war crimes and human rights violations due to the vast number of issues.
Recognition
The Center for Civil Liberties was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, alongside Ales’ Bialiatski and the Russian organization Memorial. This marked the first Nobel Prize awarded to a Ukrainian citizen or organization.