Tackling the world’s most serious human rights challenges means refusing to accept the status quo. This year, the Center for Justice and Accountability celebrates the trailblazers and innovators who are advancing what’s possible for human rights and justice. Please join us from your home for our 2022 Gala, running from May 9 to 13.
Champion of Justice
The Champion of Justice Award recognizes extraordinary contributions to the field of human rights. This year, we are honored to present this award to Patricia Viseur Sellers. Ms. Sellers is an international criminal lawyer, scholar, and advocate. She currently serves as the Special Adviser on Slavery Crimes at the International Criminal Court and is a Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College of the University of Oxford. As a prosecutor at the Yugoslav and Rwandan International Tribunals and special advisor at the International Criminal Court, she developed legal strategies that led to groundbreaking decisions recognizing sexual violence as constituting war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and other international crimes. Her work on sexual violence in conflict has helped establish international standards and she continues to advance the field so that sexual and gender-based crimes are recognized and prosecuted with the seriousness they deserve. At this moment when it is more important than ever to focus on the needs of the most marginalized and vulnerable in international criminal law, she is a trailblazer for intersectional approaches to justice and accountability.
Judith Lee Stronach
The Judith Lee Stronach Award honors individuals and organizations that have made an outstanding contribution to the movement for global justice. This year, it is our privilege to present this award to Syrian Archive and Mnemonic. Syrian Archive is a Syrian-led project aimed at collecting, analyzing, and archiving documentation of human rights violations and international crimes committed in Syria for advocacy, justice, and accountability. Syrian Archive has been a leader in preserving the Syrian Digital Memory and contributing audiovisual evidence to international justice efforts. Mnemonic grew out of the recognition that Syrian Archive’s methods could be adapted to other situations demanding a rapid response to ensure the preservation of digital information of atrocity, and has gone on to create community-led archives in Sudan and Yemen. Syrian Archive and Mnemonic are innovating in the preservation of evidence of international crimes in urgent situations around the world, and it is CJA’s privilege to work alongside them in our joint projects and investigations.
Partner in Justice
The Partner in Justice Award recognizes the remarkable partnerships that make CJA’s work possible. This year, it is our pleasure to present this award to Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Over the past two decades, Wilson Sonsini has been our partner on some of our most challenging cases. Together, we achieved a landmark victory in Jaramillo v. Jiménez Naranjo, a decade-long litigation involving human rights abuses committed by “Macaco”, one of Colombia’s most notorious paramilitary commanders. Thanks to Wilson Sonsini’s partnership, a federal court in Florida found him responsible for extrajudicial killing and torture – the first time Macaco has ever been held to account for the human rights violations committed under his command, which included the murders, disappearances, and torture of thousands of civilians. This decision also marked the first time a U.S. court found that the Colombian military worked in a symbiotic relationship with paramilitaries carrying out human rights abuses. We’re proud of our many years of partnership with Wilson Sonsini and the precedent-setting work we’ve achieved together.
Sponsorship Levels
THANK YOU TO OUR 2022 SPONSORS
Champion of Justice $35,000
Robert Flynn
Justice Advocate $25,000
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich &
Justice Defender $15,000
Morrison & Foerster LLP
The Morrison & Foerster Foundation
Justice Warrior $10,000
Mina Titi Liu and Eric Rosenblum
Defender $5,000
Keker, Van Nest & Peters
Friend $1,500
William and Seema Aceves
Dylan Savage
Carmen Cheung and Hiro Tanaka
Charline Yim
Rebecca Westerfield and Ivy Fine
Zalayet, Adler, & Suba Private Wealth Management
Kathy Roberts and Aaron Loeb
PAST HONOREES AND SPEAKERS
2021
Ben Ferencz, chief prosecutor for the United States in The Einsatzgruppen Case at the Nuremburg Tribunal and a pioneer in the field of international justice
Collette Flanagan, founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality which works to challenge police use of excessive and deadly force by empowering mothers and other family members who have lost loved ones to state violence
Women’s League of Burma, leaders in advancing human rights for women of all ethnic and religious identities in Burma
Morrison & Foerster LLP and Dentons US LLP, pro bono co-counsel in Boniface v. Villiena
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
AT&T
Baker Botts LLP
Bass, Berry & Sims PLC
Burke, Williams & Sorensen, LLP
Bertrand, Fox, Elliot, Osman & Wenzel
Beveridge & Diamond PC
California Labor Federation
Norton Rose Fullbright (formerly Chadbourne & Parke LLP)
Clinton Reilly Landmark Properties (formerly Clinton Reilly Holdings)
Cooley LLP
Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy LLP
Covington & Burling LLP
Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
Dentons
DLA Piper
Eagle Harbor Group LLC
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (formerly Farallone Pacific Insurance Services)
Donahue Fitzgerald LLP (formerly Fitzgerald Abbot & Beardsley LLP
Frisby & Associates
Gap Foundation
Ghosh Financial Group of Wells Fargo Advisors
Hadsell Stormer Renick Dai LLP (formerly Hadsell & Stormer, Inc.)
Holland & Knight LLP
Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP (formerly Keker & Van Nest LLP)
Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP
King & Spalding LLP
King Family Foundation
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 (formerly Nolan, Armstrong & Barton, LLP)
O’Melveny & Meyers LLP
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
Pacific Gas & Electric Company
Renne Public Law Group (formerly Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai LLP)
Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP
Ropes & Gray LLP
Rosen, Bien, Galvin & Grunfeld LLP
Roje Consulting LLC
Sack Properties
Salesforce Foundation
Sandler Foundation
Sanford Heisler Sharp, LLP (formerly Sanford Heisler Kimpel, LLP)
Sard Verbinnem & Co.
Shargel & Co.
Shearman & Sterling
Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP
SNR Denton (formerly Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP)
Squire Patton Boggs (formerly Patton Boggs LLP)
Steptoe & Johnson LLP
Union Bank
Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation
Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale LLP
Van Löben Sels/RembeRock Foundation
