South African Lawyer, Activist, Writer and Former Judge to receive prestigious “Lifetime Achievement Award in Pursuit of Justice” from the Clooney Foundation.
Johannesburg, South Africa (17 May 2022) – The Clooney Foundation for Justice, founded by Amal and George Clooney, has announced its inaugural awards ceremony in line with the Foundation’s vision to highlight brave justice activism in a number of sectors across the globe.
The Clooney Foundation for Justice was founded because of needs identified independently by each of the co-Presidents during the course of their work. Through her work as an international human rights lawyer, Amal Clooney saw authoritarian leaders and oppressive governments committing human rights abuses by misusing the courts and justice systems in their countries without fear and, too often, without consequences. The survivors of atrocities George Clooney met during his time in Darfur spurred him on to found The Sentry to stop the perpetrators of mass atrocities and their corporate accomplices from benefitting financially from their crimes. They, too, rarely face justice, and victims get no redress.
These pursuits of justice from different angles combined naturally to create The Clooney Foundation for Justice.
“All over the world, journalists and defenders of democracy are detained, prosecuted and jailed. Women and girls, LGBTQ+ people and minorities are subject to unfair laws and targeted for abuse. Meanwhile, the perpetrators walk free. George and Amal Clooney created the Clooney Foundation for Justice to combat this: by waging justice, one case at a time.”
The Albie Awards, named in honour of Justice Albie Sachs, who is revered for his heroic commitment to ending apartheid, will take place in New York later this year.
Not only have Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ) named the awards after South Africa’s Justice Albie Sachs, but they will also award him with a Lifetime Achievement Award in Pursuit of Justice on the evening.
Other recipients at the ‘Albie’ will be the Nobel prize-winning Filipino journalist Maria Ressa who will receive the Justice for Journalists Award; iACT, a groundbreaking international organisation that works alongside survivors of genocide and other mass atrocities, will receive the Justice for Survivors Award; Viasna, a human rights group that has been a voice of resistance in Belarus for nearly 30 years as it has led a brave campaign for freedom and democracy against President Lukashenko’s regime, will receive The Justice for Democracy Defenders award; and Dr Josephine Kulea, the Kenyan women’s rights campaigner and founder of the Samburu Girls Foundation that helps to rescue girls from child marriage, female genital mutilation, and other harmful practices received the Justice for Women Award.
Albert ‘Albie’ Louis Sachs is a South African activist, lawyer, writer, and a former judge appointed by Nelson Mandela to serve on the first Constitutional Court of South Africa. After twice being detained in South Africa for his anti-apartheid activities, in 1966, he went into exile and was later the victim of a car bombing executed by the South African security services. He lost his right arm and vision in one eye. In 1990 Sachs returned to South Africa to help write the Constitution of South Africa and later served for fifteen years on the country’s Constitutional Court.
“I take huge pleasure in working with Amal and George Clooney and getting to understand and appreciate their deep feeling for justice. I delight in their imaginative, creative ways of doing things and connecting with people,“ says Justice Albie Sachs. “I am a living survivor of a generation of South African lawyers like Griffiths Mxenge and Bram Fischer, who gave their lives for freedom and justice. I will be thinking of them when I receive this wonderful award alongside the other remarkable people and organisations.”
The Awards, hosted by George and Amal Clooney and Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation, will take place on 29 September at the New York Public Library, with some of the biggest names in international human rights, philanthropy, law, business, and entertainment in attendance and will include powerful stories of the Clooney Foundation for Justice’s work fighting for survivors of human rights abuses.
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