Individual: Stephen Lewis, Louise Arbour, Shirin Ebadi

• Who is this person and why are they legally significant?
• How does this person advocate and achieve change?
• What is the legal focus of their efforts?

 

Stephen Lewis

He was a representative from the United Nations who led a Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa in 2005. He drew attention to the public and African leaders after HIV/AIDS became a crisis. He addressed the African countries and made it clear that the crisis was supposed to be responded to urgently. He legally involved all governments in this fight the virus. To achieve this, he came up with Stephen Lewis foundation, a community based organization which provided treatment and care on the HIV patients especially women, orphaned children and the elderly.

Louise Arbour

Louise served as a chief prosecutor in the war crimes before international court tribunals as a judge. She focused on ensuring human rights are protected so as to promote peace, justice, freedom and security. She came up with a dynamic international peace program with a law enforcement agency for human rights. Through this program, she earned her first conviction for genocide and her first indictment for war crimes.

Shirin Ebadi

Shirin was the first female judge in Iraq and she was removed after Khomeini revolution where she started defending individuals and groups who faced prosecution under authorities. She achieved this through opening a legal practice that focused on democracy and human rights, especially for women and children. In 2003, she was awarded the Nobel peace prize.