Jerome Shestack and Thomas Buergenthal, Two Renowned Advocates of Human Rights and Justice Through Law, Receiving Prestigious Gruber Prize

Business Wire, Oct 29, 2008

Yale Law School Dean Harold Hongju Koh to Speak on "Human Rights in the Post-Post-Post Cold War World" to Honor 2008 Gruber Justice Prize Recipients at George Washington University Law School Symposium Tomorrow

WASHINGTON & PHILADELPHIA -- Harold Hongju Koh, dean of Yale Law School, will lead a panel discussion featuring two giants of international justice as they are honored with the 2008 Justice Prize of the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation. Dean Koh will deliver a brief talk entitled "Human Rights in the Post-Post-Post Cold War World," after which the 2008 Gruber Justice Prize recipients Judge Thomas Buergenthal and Jerome J. Shestack will share their insights on this subject, gleaned from their long and distinguished legal careers. The three panel members will then accept questions from the audience. This event, which will also be viewable via webcast (www.gruberprizes.org), will take place at 2 p.m. ET on October 30, 2008, at the George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC.

"Through a lifetime of dedication and determination to the principles of equal rights and justice through law, each of this year's Gruber prize recipients has had a profoundly positive and lasting impact on the lives of people all over the world," said Patricia Gruber, co-founder of the foundation that has been awarding the Gruber Justice Prize annually since 2001. "They will discuss the work that they and others have done to bring justice to the victims of oppression and discrimination, and reflect on how a changing geopolitical landscape has affected - and will continue to affect - the nature of those efforts."

The event participants will include:

* Judge Thomas Buergenthal - a child of the Holocaust who became a world leader in the struggle for justice and serves as the American judge on the International Court of Justice; co-authored the first international human rights law textbook in the United States; as judge and president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, helped end the practice of disappearances in Honduras, and helped secure the government of Guatemala's compliance with a Court order ending executions of human rights activists by special tribunals. A complete biography is available at http://www.gruberprizes.org/GruberPrizes/Justice_LaureateBio. php?id=66&awardid=46

* Jerome J. Shestack - former president of the American Bar Association who helped end the practice of disappearances in Argentina, Chile, and Brazil; helped marshal support to eliminate race and gender discrimination in the United States; successfully defended dissidents in the former Soviet Union and South Africa; organized protection for human rights advocates; and served as a mentor to a generation of human rights lawyers. A complete biography is available at http://www.gruberprizes.org/GruberPrizes/Justice_LaureateBio. php?id=67&awardid=46

* Yale Law School Dean Harold Hongju Koh will be the panel's moderator. The Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law at Yale, Dean Koh is a leading expert on international law and a prominent advocate of human and civil rights. He has been a member of the Yale Law School faculty since 1985 and its dean since 2004. From 1998 to 2001, Dean Koh served as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Before joining Yale, he practiced law at Covington and Burling and at the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice.

In addition to a shared cash award of $500,000, the two Justice Prize recipients receive a medal of honor and citation, which reads:

The 2008 Justice Prize of the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation is proudly presented to Jerome Shestack and Thomas Buergenthal, two human rights advocates who are pioneers in the fight for justice and human rights throughout the world.

They have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to creating a world in which both governments and citizens protect and honor individualized freedom and human dignity while vigilantly fighting against social injustice and human rights abuses.

Amid great challenges, Thomas Buergenthal and Jerome Shestack made tremendous and lasting contributions to creating a just rule of law and changing the landscape of human rights advocacy. Through their staunch advocacy, they influenced the thinking of government officials, policymakers, educational institutions, and the general public around the world, and brought these figures into the struggle for human rights.

"Justice begins with the actions of committed individuals," said Dean Koh, the featured speaker and panel moderator at the Gruber Foundation Justice Prize ceremony. "Through inspired lifetimes of devotion to justice through law, each prize recipient has provided a powerful example of what worthy individuals can accomplish, even in the face of seemingly overwhelming obstacles."

Members of the committee that selected the 2008 Justice Prize Recipients:

* Dennis Archer, former president, American Bar Association, former mayor of Detroit, former member of the Supreme Court of Michigan