Eleanor Roosevelt Prize for Global Human Rights Advancement
With the blessing of the Roosevelt family, CHR in 2018 established the annual Eleanor Roosevelt Prize for Global Human Rights Advancement to recognize persons and organizations having a positive, enduring, and global impact in advancing the principles set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Eleanor Roosevelt championed.
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”
- Eleanor Roosevelt
2024 Honorees
The Center celebrated Human Rights First, Professor Ved Nanda (posthumously), and Ambassador David Scheffer, a true icon of international criminal justice, in a ceremony on September 17, held at the Georgetown University Law center.
Learn more about the recipients and view remarks from the ceremony here.
EarthRights International and Human Rights Watch received the 2022 Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Global Human Rights Advancement in a ceremony on December 8, held at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College.
2022 Roosevelt Honorees EarthRights International and Human Rights Watch
Learn more about the recipients and view remarks from the ceremony here.
2021 Honorees
Amnesty International and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund received the 2021 Eleanor Roosevelt Prizes in a December 2021 virtual series sponsored by the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation.
Honorary Prize: Llewelyn G. Pritchard, for extraordinary service to CHR.
Learn more about the recipients and view the remarks from the ceremony here.
2020 Honorees
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Billie Jean King, a champion of women's empowerment, and Nasrin Sotoudeh, a detained Iranian human rights lawyer, received the 2020 Eleanor Roosevelt Prizes in a December 2020 virtual series sponsored by the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci (left), Billie Jean King (center), and Nasrin Sotoudeh (right)
Learn more about the recipients and view the remarks from the ceremony here.
2019 Honorees
Chai Feldblum, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Lambda Legal received the 2019 Eleanor Roosevelt Prizes at the historic Roosevelt House in New York City, Dec. 6, 2019.
Chai Feldblum (front right), and representatives of the ACLU and of Lambda Legal, pictured with James Roosevelt (far right).
Benjamin Ferencz, former Nuremberg War Crimes Trials prosecutor, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, former U.S. secretary of state, received the inaugural Eleanor Roosevelt Prizes at historic Roosevelt House, on Sept. 14, 2018.
Benjamin Ferencz (left), former Nuremberg War Crimes Trials prosecutor, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, former U.S. secretary of state.