Gruber Justice Prize Celebrations in Washington, DC

The Center joined with many of our friends and partners in Washington, D.C. to celebrate receiving the Gruber Foundation’s 2010 International Justice Prize.  The Prize recognizes the Center’s contributions to international law and the advancement of human rights and rule of law. We were honored to have been selected, and equally flattered by the nomination submitted by the Tonawanda Seneca Nation that convinced the Gruber Foundation that the Center was deserving of the award. 

Robert Kushen, a member of the Justice Prize Selection Advisory Committee, presented the award to the Center.  He noted that when he was working in the Office of the Legal Adviser for the U.S. State Department in the 1990s, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was “viewed with great nervousness” by both the Republican and Democratic administrations he worked for.   He suggested the “inverse relationship of the progressive nature of the Declaration and the degree to which it makes lawyers in the State Department nervous” should be considered a point of honor for the Declaration. 

The following evening, October 12, the Center held a lecture and hosted a reception at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.  Former White House Legal Counsel Greg Craig was the featured guest speaker.  Joined by the Center’s board and staff, he recognized not only the important work of the Center, but the many partners and supporters who share in the Center’s accomplishments over the past 30 years fighting for justice for indigenous peoples.

Presentations given at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian on October 12

Greg Craig

Armstrong Wiggins