2010 Gruber Justice Prize

Michael Kirby was appointed to Australia’s High Court in 1996, where his attention to international law and human rights as relevant to Australia’s common law often put him in the minority and earned him the title of Australia’s “Great Dissenter.”  In the 1970s, Mr. Kirby had become involved in international activities, chairing the OECD panels that created the guidelines that were to serve as the basis for modern privacy and data security law in the U.S., Europe, Australia and New Zealand.  He has served on UNESCO’s International Bioethics Committee, and chaired the group that prepared the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. His work for the UN on behalf of the human rights of persons living with HIV and AIDS has driven legal reform in many countries that has resulted in many lives being saved.

John Dugard is a lawyer, writer and teacher who confronted the injustice of apartheid law in South Africa and helped shape the constitutional basis for equal justice under law in the post-apartheid era.  He helped train the generation of human rights lawyers who challenged apartheid in the courts in representing its victims and building respect for a constitutionalism embodying human rights for every citizen. Since the collapse of apartheid, Mr. Dugard has served as a member of the UN’s International Law Commission and a Special Rapporteur on Diplomatic Protection. He has also been Judge ad hoc in the International Court of Justice (2002-8) and Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories (2001-8).  His influential role in the development of international law, including international human rights law, has earned him international respect.       

The Indian Law Resource Center is a nonprofit organization established and directed by American Indians that, for more than three decades, has championed the interests of indigenous peoples in the Americas.  The Center provides legal assistance to Indian and Alaska Native nations to help protect their lands and resources and preserve their cultural heritage. Where domestic law has failed to protect the rights of Native peoples, the Center has appealed to the UN and other international bodies.  The Center played a leading role in eventually securing the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. A human rights complaint filed by the Center with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights resulted in the first finding by an international commission that the laws permitting the taking of land by the federal government are discriminatory.