lantos prize

New Episode of The Keeper - Episode 21: Rule of Law Season Finale – 2020 Lantos Prize Laureate Bryan Stevenson on Justice

On the final episode of our 7-part Rule of Law season, we return to the subject of the state of the rule of law right here in America. We hear from our 2020 Lantos Human Rights Prize Laureate Bryan Stevenson, who has been a tireless advocate for applying the rule of law equally and fairly in the United States, regardless of race or economic status, as well as for dealing more honestly and openly with this country’s history of inequality. Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and author of the best-selling book Just Mercy, has spent more than three decades advocating on behalf of incarcerated people who have been wrongly convicted or unfairly sentenced. In this episode, we hear his perspective on the difference between law and justice, how America compromises its standing as a human rights leader when it fails to confront its own human rights challenges, why mercy is as fundamental a principle as justice, and more. Listen to this powerful and inspiring conclusion to the Rule of Law season.

Equal Justice Initiative

Just Mercy (best-selling book adapted into a film)

2020 Lantos Human Rights Prize Recipient

Bryan Stevenson: From the courtroom to Hollywood (BookTube)

The Moment to Close America’s Hypocrisy Gap, by Katrina Lantos Swett (Medium)

Lantos Foundation Announces Bryan Stevenson as the 2020 Lantos Human Rights Prize Recipient

Media Contact:
Chelsea Hedquist
chelsea@lantosfoundation.org

+1 603.229.2017


Lantos Foundation Announces Bryan Stevenson as the 2020 Lantos Human Rights Prize Recipient
Founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and author of “Just Mercy” becomes first Lantos Prize laureate whose work focuses primarily on U.S. domestic human rights issues

December 10, 2020 – On Human Rights Day, the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice announced that Bryan Stevenson will receive the 2020 Lantos Human Rights Prize for his powerful advocacy work urging the United States to apply the rule of law equally and to deal more honestly and openly with its history of inequality. Additionally, Mr. Stevenson has worked tirelessly for more than three decades on behalf of incarcerated people who have been wrongly convicted or unfairly sentenced.

“We are thrilled to honor Bryan Stevenson as our 2020 Lantos Prize laureate,” said Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, President of the Lantos Foundation. “His perseverance and dedication to the cause of equality serves as a powerful reminder that the fight for human rights must begin here at home. To maintain the United States’ legitimacy and moral authority as a human rights leader globally, we must be willing to confront our own shortcomings and work with vigor to address them. Mr. Stevenson’s life’s work offers an example of how to do this with dignity and compassion, and the Lantos Prize honors him for more than the pursuit of civil rights – it honors him for a truly defining work of human rights.”

The Lantos Human Rights Prize is awarded annually to raise awareness about human rights issues and to highlight the brave individuals who are committed to fighting for them throughout the world. The Prize also serves to commemorate Congressman Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor ever elected to the U.S. Congress and a prominent advocate for human rights worldwide during his nearly three decades in office. Mr. Stevenson joins a distinguished list of Lantos Prize recipients, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Professor Elie Wiesel, Israeli President Shimon Peres, “mother” of the Uyghurs Rebiya Kadeer, “Hotel Rwanda” hero Paul Rusesabagina, Hong Kong Democracy activist Joshua Wong, and Bill Browder, the moving force behind the global Magnitsky movement, among others.

“It is an incredible honor to receive the Lantos Human Rights Prize and to have my work recognized alongside that of so many inspiring human rights figures,” said Mr. Stevenson. “At a moment when our nation faces many challenges but also many opportunities for progress in the long fight for equality, it is both affirming and motivating to know that the Lantos Foundation, an organization with an incredible legacy and vital mission, believes my work is symbolic of the struggle for human rights. Through this Prize, I am grateful to have the fight for equality and justice here in America acknowledged as having a place in the global human rights movement.”

Since 1989, Mr. Stevenson has been executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a private, nonprofit law organization he founded that focuses on social justice and human rights in the context of criminal justice reform in the United States. EJI litigates on behalf of condemned prisoners, juvenile offenders, people wrongly convicted or charged, poor people denied effective representation, and others whose trials are marked by racial bias or prosecutorial misconduct. Mr. Stevenson’s work has won him national and international acclaim, including the MacArthur Fellowship Award Prize, the Reebok Human Rights Award, the 1991 ACLU National Medal of Liberty, the Olaf Palme Prize in Stockholm, Sweden, the Award for Courageous Advocacy from the American College of Trial Lawyers, and the Lawyer for the People Award from the National Lawyers Guild. In 2006, he was named the Public Interest Lawyer of the Year by the National Association of Public Interest Lawyers. He is the author of the New York Times Bestseller Just Mercy, which won the 2015 Carnegie Medal for Best Non-Fiction, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the NAACP Image Award for Best Non-Fiction. 

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Lantos Human Rights Prize ceremony will be postponed until 2021, and more information will be shared with members of the media as details become available.

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About the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice: The Lantos Foundation was established in 2008 to carry forward the legacy of Congressman Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor ever elected to the U.S. Congress and a leading human rights champion. The Lantos Foundation works with a range of partners and often in cooperation with the U.S. Government on issues that span the globe. The Foundation’s key areas of focus include human rights issues related to religious freedom, rule of law, internet freedom and activist art. The Foundation also administers the Lantos Congressional Fellows Program, supports human rights advocates, activists and artists through its Front Line Fund grant program, and awards the annual Lantos Human Rights Prize to honor and bring attention to heroes of the human rights movement.

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China Bars Dissident From Accepting U.S. Human Rights Award - The Daily Beast

“Documents show the court has denied his request to travel to the United States to receive the Lantos prize, an award from an American foundation honoring former House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Tom Lantos. Prior recipients of the prize include Hillary Clinton, the Dalai Lama, and Elie Wiesel. Wong, whose activist work was the subject of a 2017 Netflix documentary, would have accepted the award in Washington next month had he been able to travel.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

2018 Lantos Human Rights Prize to be Awarded to Joshua Wong

The Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice is proud to announce that our highest honor, the Lantos Human Rights Prize, will be awarded in 2018 to Joshua Wong, a charismatic leader of the Hong Kong movement for democracy and human rights.

Joshua Wong has received worldwide recognition and admiration as the teenager who dared to take on China in a fight for the democratic future of his beloved Hong Kong. Named by both Time Magazine and Fortune to their lists of the most influential leaders in the world, Joshua has become a target for persecution and imprisonment as a result of his determination to fight for a free future for Hong Kong. Part of Joshua’s story was chronicled in “Joshua: Teenager vs Superpower” which won the Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival and is currently available on Netflix.

In recent years, China has been slowly tightening the noose on political, educational, and cultural institutions in Hong Kong despite a treaty commitment to allow Hong Kong to maintain its independent and democratic system while legally part of China.

At the age of only 14, Joshua founded the Scholarism movement to fight against the introduction of a program of communist indoctrination in the Hong Kong school system. Against all odds, Mr. Wong’s tiny group of activists swelled to over 100,000 peaceful protestors, galvanized in large measure by Joshua’s personal passion and his electrifying oratory.

After achieving an improbable victory in the fight for educational integrity in Hong Kong, Mr. Wong became a key leader in the democratic Umbrella movement and one of the founders of the Demosisto Party which advocates for Hong Kong’s autonomy and right to self-determination. Joshua is now facing likely imprisonment for his charismatic leadership of these movements.

Lantos Foundation President Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett said in a statement regarding the 2018 Lantos Prize:

“Joshua Wong, despite his youth, has shown remarkable clarity of vision in fighting against China’s encroaching stranglehold on Hong Kong and its institutions. Few have been willing to take on the aggressive Chinese Goliath, but this young “David” has stepped forward to engage in this battle with uncommon courage and idealism. The Lantos Foundation is proud to honor Joshua, and we call on the government of Hong Kong to allow him to travel to the US Congress to receive this well-deserved award.”

Upon learning of his selection for the Lantos Prize, Mr. Wong issued the following statement:

“It is a true honor to be awarded the 2018 Lantos Prize. By the time of the award ceremony, I will probably be back behind bars for protesting against Beijing’s authoritarian regime. Alas, civil disobedience has never been risk free but one must fight for what one believes in. Rest assured these challenges have only made me and my fellow activists stronger in our beliefs and more courageous in our convictions. It is an honor for me to accept this prestigious Lantos Prize in the name of the millions of Hongkongers who decided to stand up against the false façade of democracy and to take their destiny into their own hands.”

Anti-Genocide Activist Father Patrick Desbois to Receive 2017 Lantos Human Rights Prize

The Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice is proud to announce that our highest honor, the Lantos Human Rights Prize, will be awarded to Father Patrick Desbois, President and founder of the international human rights organization Yahad In-Unum. Father Desbois is being recognized as the 2017 Lantos Prize recipient for his unparalleled work in uncovering the lost stories of over one million victims of the “Holocaust by Bullets” period of World War II as well as his continuing fight against anti-Semitism and genocide throughout the world. 

The Lantos Foundation will present their most distinguished prize at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. on October 26, 2017, at the U.S. Capitol. Father Desbois joins a distinguished community of prior Lantos Laureates that includes the Dalai Lama, Hillary Clinton, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, and most recently Vian Dakhil (aka “ISIS’ Most Wanted”), who was recognized for her courageous defense of the Yazidi people. It is fitting that Father Desbois should receive the Prize the year following Ms. Dakhil, as he has been outspoken in defense of her Yazidi community - a 21st century victim of genocide at the hands of ISIS.

“At a time when anti-Semitic acts are surging globally, Father Desbois’ work is more important than ever,” said Lantos Foundation President Katrina Lantos Swett. “Exposing the truth, honoring the victims, and memorializing these events are vital safeguards against a repetition of these horrors. But Father Desbois’ work is about more than rescuing and remembering the past. His truly universal calling is to act on behalf of all victims of mass violence, persecution, and murder. The Lantos Foundation is truly honored to recognize him for this noble mission.”

The Lantos Foundation established the Lantos Human Rights Prize in 2009 to honor and bring attention to heroes of the human rights movement. It is awarded annually to an individual or organization that best exemplifies the Foundation’s mission, namely to be a vital voice standing up for the values of decency, dignity, freedom, and justice in every corner of the world. The prize also serves to honor the memory and legacy of the late Congressman Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor ever elected to the U.S. Congress and a leading advocate for human rights during his nearly three decades as a U.S. Representative.