Barbara Arnwine

Laureate Profile

Barbara Arnwine became executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in 1989. She led the Committee’s efforts to secure Congressional passage of what became the Civil Rights Act of 1991. Following the presidential election of 2000, she led the nationwide, nonpartisan Election Protection Program, which, by 2008, was one of the largest pro bono programs in the U.S. Ms. Arnwine helped ensure that over 250,000 families displaced by Hurricane Katrina would not be evicted from hotels and shelters until alternative housing had been found. She has also fought for human rights internationally – on behalf of Haitian refugees in investigating conditions at Guantanamo Bay and as the leader of a delegation to the UN’s 1995 Decade of Women Conference and NGO Forum in Beijing.