The Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights was established in 1998 by the President of the United States Bill Clinton, honoring outstanding American promoters of rights in the United States.
The award was first awarded on the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, honoring Eleanor Roosevelt's role as the "driving force" in the development of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The award was presented from 1998 to the end of the Clinton Administration in 2001.
In 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton revived the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights and presented the award on behalf of President Obama.
Recipients of the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights
1998
- Robert L. Bernstein, founder of Human Rights Watch and retired chairman of Random House
- Representative John Lewis, lifelong civil rights leader
- Bette Bao Lord, human rights activist, China scholar and novelist.
- Dorothy Q. Thomas, women's rights activist responsible for groundbreaking research and advocacy on human rights violations against women around the world.
- Dolores Huerta, co-founder and leader of the United Farm Workers of America and lifelong labor activist.
1999
- Charlotte Bunch, an international women's rights activist, instrumental in securing the inclusion of gender and sexual orientation on the global human rights agenda.
- Burke Marshall, for his lifelong commitment to civil rights, including his service as Assistant Attorney General in the Kennedy Administration.
- Sister Jean Marshall, a Dominican nun who founded St. Rita's Immigrant and Refugee Center in the Bronx, in service to victimized immigrants.
- Rev. Leon Sullivan, anti-apartheid activist and author of the Global Sullivan Principles promoting corporate social responsibility worldwide, that he unveiled at the United Nations that year together with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
2000
- Tillie Black Bear, a strong voice for Native American and women's rights and a leading advocate for victims of domestic violence.
- Frederick Charles Cuny, a lifetime of service to the civilian victims of conflict and disaster.
- Norman Dorsen, former President of the American Civil Liberties Union and Chairman of the Board of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now known as Human Rights First).
- Elaine R. Jones, promoted groundbreaking civil rights legislation and widened the circle of opportunity for all Americans.
- Most Reverend Theodore Edgar McCarrick, lifelong human rights advocate.
2001
- Congressman Frank Wolf, worked tirelessly for the passage of landmark human rights legislation, including the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 and legislation on trafficking in persons.
- John Kamm, for working to engage the Chinese Government in a results-oriented dialogue on human rights
- Barbara Elliott, for starting a private initiative to provide people with basic needs and help them through the transition following the fall of the Berlin Wall.
2010
- Professor Louis Henkin (posthumous) worked for over half a century developing human rights legal studies and is an important figure in the field, effecting generations of bureaucrats lawyers, activists and legal scholars.
- Alice Hartman Henkin
- Wade Henderson
- Sarah Cleto Rial
References
- Clinton, W. Memorandum for the Secretary of State, December 9, 1998
- Fact sheet: human rights day December 10 & Eleanor Roosevelt Award, December 10, 1998
- Fact Sheet: Human Rights Day 1999, Eleanor Roosevelt Award , December 6, 1999
- Fact Sheet: Human Rights Day: The Eleanor Roosevelt Award, December 6, 2000
- Presentation of Eleanor Roosevelt Award, December 13, 2001
