The Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) has spent more than a quarter century seeking truth, justice, and redress for war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture, and other atrocities around the world through our litigation, transitional justice initiatives, and advocacy. We pursue international justice from the ground up, working in solidarity and partnership with victims, survivors, and their communities. This year, we celebrate the movements, partnerships, and international solidarity that advances human rights and creates hope for justice. Meet our 2024 human rights award honorees.
Champion of Justice
The Champion of Justice Award recognizes extraordinary contributions to the field of human rights. This year, it is our privilege to present this award to Burma’s Civil Disobedience Movement, a movement that exemplifies what it means to stand up for justice and international human rights at home.
Almost immediately after the February 1, 2021 coup in Burma, the country went on strike.
On February 2, doctors and health care workers at Mandalay General Hospital stated they would refuse to work for the junta. The movement spread among other doctors and health care workers throughout the country, and other sectors quickly followed, from educators and civil servants to railway workers and miners. A mass civil disobedience movement emerged to paralyze the junta and deprive it of the labor it needed to operate, and united the people of Burma across ethnic boundaries. This movement became popularly known as the CDM.
Today, over 3 years after the coup, the CDM continues to be a non-violent backbone to the resistance against the junta. It is a movement led almost entirely by women, and in a country where divide and rule has been a tactic since colonialism, it is a movement that has been inclusive across ethnicities, religions, class, gender identity, and generations. In 2022, the CDM was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. We honor the tremendous courage and sacrifice of individuals from across Burma who are taking action to resist repression, and recognize them all as human rights defenders.
Judith Lee Stronach Award
The Judith Lee Stronach Award honors individuals and organizations that have made an outstanding contribution to the movement for global justice. This year, we present this award to the Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS, Center of Legal and Social Studies). CELS is a leading Argentine human rights organization founded in 1979 during the last military dictatorship in Argentina, and our key partner in CJA’s litigation on the Trelew Massacre. Lawyers from CELS, in partnership with Chubut-based lawyer Eduardo Hualpa, represent families of the victims of the Trelew Massacre in criminal proceedings before Argentine courts, and have spent years working alongside the families in pursuit of justice. They facilitated our investigation into this case when international travel was impossible during the COVID pandemic, and made it possible for us to develop the evidence we needed to win our case.
In its early years, CELS fought for truth and justice for the gross human rights violations committed by the Argentine government during decades of dictatorship. At the end of the 1980s, it expanded its agenda to include human rights violations committed under democracy, their structural causes, and their relationship to social inequality. Our collective victory in Camps v. Bravo would not have been possible without CELS’s tireless dedication over nearly two decades, working alongside the families of the victims of the Trelew Massacre. Through this award, we honor our partnership and express our gratitude for CELS’s leadership in advancing the protection and effective exercise of human rights, justice, and social inclusion in Argentina and beyond.
Partner in Justice
The Partner in Justice Award recognizes the remarkable partnerships that make CJA’s work possible and successful. This year, we present this award to Foley Hoag LLP, an international law firm that has been a dedicated partner to CJA for many years. From litigation on behalf of renowned Saudi women’s rights activist Loujain Alhathoul, our partnership supporting the family of acclaimed Chilean folk singer Víctor Jara, to work at the Khmer Rouge tribunal in Cambodia, Foley Hoag lawyers have been indispensable partners in helping CJA deliver human rights victories.
Closing Remarks
THANK YOU TO OUR 2024 SPONSORS
Champion of Justice $50,000
Justice Advocate $25,000
Flynn Family Foundation
King Family Foundation
Justice Defender $15,000
Justice Warrior $10,000
Defender $5,000
Partner $2,500
Carmen Cheung Ka-Man & Hirohisa Tanaka
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Friend $1,000
Anonymous Donor
William & Seema Aceves
Jenner & Block LLP
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP
Minami Tamaki LLP
Jane Rocamora
PAST HONOREES AND SPEAKERS
2023
Tendayi Achiume, Former U.N. Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism and 2023 MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient
Dale Minami, renowned U.S. civil rights activist and human rights attorney
Syrian British Consortium, an advocacy group that amplifies the voices of Syrians towards building a democratic and inclusive Syria
Keker, Van Vest & Peter, pro bono co-counsel in Camps, et al. v. Bravo
2022
Patricia Viseur Sellers, Special Adviser on Slavery Crimes at the International Criminal Court and Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College of the University of Oxford
Mnemonic/Syrian Archive, dedicated to preserving digital evidence of atrocity crimes
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, pro bono counsel in Jaramillo v. Jiménez Naranjo
2021
Ben Ferencz, chief prosecutor for the United States in The Einsatzgruppen Case at the Nuremburg Tribunal
Colette Flanagan, founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality (MAPB)
Women’s League of Burma (WLB)
Morrison & Foerster LLP and Dentons US LLP, CJA’s pro bono co-counsel in Boniface v. Viliena
2020
Gerald Gray, LCSW, MPH, a psychotherapist and licensed clinical social worker, founded CJA in 1998
Yazidi women seeking justice, genocide survivors demanding justice and finding solidarity with other survivors.
Debevoise & Plimpton, CJA’s partner and co-counsel on our groundbreaking cases seeking accountability for the Lutheran Church Massacre
2019
The Honorable Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Honorable Dianne Feinstein, Senator representing the State of California, led the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation of the CIA’s use of torture
Comisión Colombiana de Juristas, partner to CJA’s efforts on Colombia
Sherman and Sterling, pro bono co-counsel for Colvin v. Syria Arab Republic
2018
The Honorable David Scheffer, former and first United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues
Hassan Bility, Director of the Global Justice and Research Project, Liberia
Mintz Group
2017
Youk Chhang, Executive Director, Documentation Center of Cambodia
Morgan, Lewis & pro bono counsel
2016
Ambassador Stephen J. Rapp, former U.S. Ambassador- at-Large for War Crimes Issues
Colectivo de Abrogados “José Alvear Restrepo”
Tara Lee and DLA Piper, pro bono co-counsel for Warfaa v. Ali
2015
Navi Pillay, former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and judge at the International Criminal Court
Chadbourne & Parke LLP
Suleiman Ismail Bolaleh, Chairman of the Horn of Africa Human Rights Watch Committee, the leading human rights advocacy organization in Somaliland
2013
The Honorable Claudia Paz y Paz, Guatemala’s former Attorney General who oversaw the genocide prosecution of President and General Efrain Rios Montt
Latham & Watkins LLP
Ahmed Salah, Coordinator for the Coalition of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution in Egypt, co-founder of the 6th April Youth Movement and of the Egyptian Movement for Change
2012
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Ambassador Robert White, Senior Fellow, Center for International Policy and former Ambassador to El Salvador and Paraguay
Lydia Cacho, Journalist and Founder of CIAM Cancún which works to hold perpetrators of violence against women accountable in Mexico
2011
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
Jose Pablo Baraybar, Director of the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team, whose groundbreaking work has been instrumental in prosecutions of human rights abusers
William Neukom, Founder, President, and CEO of the World Justice Project and former CEO of the San Francisco Giants
Kamala Harris, junior Senator for the state of California former Attorney General for California and District Attorney for San Francisco
2010
Cooley Godward Kronish LLP
Helen Mack Chang, founder of the Myrna Mack Foundation and partner in CJA’s Guatemala Genocide Case
2009
Mario Joseph, Founder of Bureau Des Avocats Internationaux, a leading Haitian human rights legal NGO and CJA partner
2008
Harold Hongju Koh, former Legal Adviser to the U.S. Department of State and Dean of Yale Law School
2007
Paul Hoffman, co-founder of CJA and leading international human rights attorney
PAST CORPORATE AND ORGANIZATIONAL SPONSORS
- Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
- Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
- AT&T
- Baker Botts LLP
- Bass, Berry & Sims PLC
- Bertrand, Fox, Elliot, Osman & Wenzel
- Beveridge & Diamond PC
- Burke, Williams & Sorensen, LLP
- California Labor Federation
- Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP
- Clinton Reilly Landmark Properties
- Cooley LLP
- Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy LLP
- Covington & Burling LLP
- Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
- Dentons
- DLA Piper
- Donahue Fitzgerald LLP
- Eagle Harbor Group LLC
- Foley Hoag LLP
- Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
- Frisby & Associates
- Gap Foundation
- Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP
- Ghosh Financial Group of Wells Fargo Advisors
- Hadsell Stormer Renick Dai LLP
- Holland & Knight LLP
- Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP
- Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP
- King & Spalding LLP
- Kirkland & Ellis LLP
- Latham & Watkins LLP
- Meyers Nave
- Minami Tamaki LLP
- Mintz Group
- Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
- Morrison & Foerster LLP
- The Morrison & Foerster Foundation
- Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP
- Nolan, Barton, Olmos LLP
- Norton Rose Fulbright
(formerly Chadbourne & Parke LLP) - O’Melveny & Meyers LLP
- Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
- Pacific Gas & Electric Company
- Renne Public Law Group
- Roje Consulting LLC
- Ropes & Gray LLP
- Rosen, Bien, Galvin & Grunfeld LLP
- Sack Properties
- Salesforce Foundation
- Sandler Foundation
- Sanford Heisler Sharp, LLP
- Sard Verbinnem & Co.
- Shargel & Co.
- Shearman & Sterling
- Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP
- SNR Denton
(formerly Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP) - Squire Patton Boggs
- Steptoe & Johnson LLP
- Union Bank
- Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale LLP
- Van Löben Sels/RembeRock Foundation
- Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP
- Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation
- Zalayet, Adler, & Suba Private Wealth Management
