MARIANA COOK: JUSTICE, FACES OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS REVOLUTION

Also available: 10 3/8 x 10 1/4" matted to 20 x 16", edition of 15, $3,000; 15 1/16 x 15" matted to 30 x 24", edition of 6, $7,500

JOHN LEWIS (1940-2020), born to a family of sharecroppers in Alabama, was among the most highly respected members of the United States Congress, where he had served from 1987 until his death in 2020. His personal history links key moments of the civil rights movement. He attended American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville in the late 1950s, and was among a core group of students that taught and practiced the philosophy of nonviolence. After they desegregated public facilities in that city in 1960, Lewis went on to join the band of black and white students who mounted the Freedom Rides in the spring of 1961. Lewis was a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and became Chair of SNCC in 1963. His militant speech at the March on Washington was a counterpoint to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” and distinguished him among the national leadership of the civil rights movement. While Chair of SNCC, Lewis helped organize the “Freedom Summer” campaign in Mississippi in 1964 and, in 1965, led protesters across the Edmond Pettis Bridge in Selma in a march for voting rights. The brutal assault by Alabama State Troopers on the marchers left Lewis with a fractured skull and drew national attention. This episode sparked a march of thousands from Selma to Montgomery and led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Lewis went on to direct the Voter Education Project, dedicated to expanding voter participation and helping to elect blacks to public office throughout the South. He served on the Atlanta City Council before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986. His experiences are recounted in his award-winning book, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement.  

Also available: 11 11/16 x 10 1/2" matted to 20 x 16", edition of 15, $3,000

SIR SYDNEY KENTRIDGE (b. 1922) practiced law in South Africa for 30 years, becoming one of the most important advocates of the 20th century. He was the lead lawyer in the 1962 trial of Nelson Mandela and the 1977 inquest into the death of Stephen Biko, among other important political trials in apartheid South Africa. He served as an Acting Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa from 1995 to 1996. He was called to the English Bar in 1977 and appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1984. He was knighted (KCMG) in 1999. Sir Sydney has been married for more than 60 years to Felicia Kentridge, a founder of the Legal Resources Center, the leading human rights organization in South Africa. They are the parents of four children, including the artist William Kentridge.

BEATRICE MTETWA (b. 1958) was born and educated in Swaziland. She is the first member of her family to graduate from college. After earning her law degree, she became a prosecutor and moved to Zimbabwe, where she focused on family law and human rights. Since the early 1990s, she has actively defended victims of human rights abuses and spearheaded constitutional challenges, including a case that challenged election results in 37 constituencies in Zimbabwe. Despite being physically attacked and receiving death threats, she has represented journalists charged under Zimbabwe’s draconian media laws, defended political leaders from both the Tsvangirai and the Mutambara branches of the Movement for Democratic Change, and championed social causes, including eradicating AIDS, protecting the rights of women and children, and helping poor farmers reclaim land wrongfully seized by the government.

Also available: 12 5/16 x 10 5/16" matted to 20 x 16", edition of 15, $3,000; 36 x 30 1/4", mount size 46 x 40", edition of 6, $9,500

RAJA SHEHADEH (b. 1951) is a Palestinian lawyer, author, and one of the founders of the pioneering human rights organization Al Haq, a nonpartisan, West Bank affiliate of the International Commission of Jurists. He has written several books about international law, human rights, and the Middle East, as well as the highly praised Strangers in the House (2002), When the Bulbul Stopped Singing: Life in Ramallah Under Siege (2003) (which has been adapted for the theater), and Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape (2007), for which he was awarded the prestigious Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2008. He continues to be an eloquent voice for the plight of the Palestinians in his two more recently published books, A Rift In Time: Travels with My Ottoman Uncle and Occupation Diaries. 

Also available: 12 7/8 x 9 3/8" matted to 20 x 16", edition of 15, $3,000; 36 x 26" mounted on 46 x 40" board, edition of 6, $9,500

LOUIS H. POLLAK (1922-2012) was universally beloved. As a lawyer, law teacher, and judge, he was involved in some of the most controversial areas of the law, and yet his relations with colleagues were characteristically warm, and he was known for his kindness. He served as Dean of Yale and the University of Pennsylvania Law Schools, and was a Senior District Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. His 77 law clerks have gone on to clerk for Supreme Court justices of sharply differing views, among them Burger, Rehnquist, Scalia, Brennan, Powell, Stevens, and Breyer. He received degrees from Harvard College and the Yale Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Journal.

Also available: 13 1/16 x 10 5/8" matted to 20 x 16", edition of 15, $3,000; 18 5/16 x 15" matted to 30 x 24", edition of 6, $5,000

ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU (b. 1931) is Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, a veteran anti-apartheid activist and peace campaigner often described as “South Africa’s moral conscience.” He began his career as a high school teacher but turned to theology after the 1953 Bantu Education Act enforced racial segregation in educational institutions. He soon became well known internationally for his commitment to nonviolence and for his support for economic sanctions against apartheid South Africa. He organized many peaceful demonstrations and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 and appointed Chair of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1994. “Without forgiveness,” he says, “there can be no future for a relationship between individuals or within and between nations.” Since 2007, he has been the founding Chair of the Elders, an independent group of global leaders who promote peace and human rights worldwide. He is one of the most loved and respected activists of our time, a man whom Nelson Mandela once described as “sometimes strident, often tender, never afraid, and seldom without humor.”

PATRICK LOZÈS (b. 1965) campaigns for equal rights and fights discrimination in France. He was born in Benin and immigrated with his family to France in 1979. He was originally trained as a pharmacist but became the Founder and former President of Conseil Rèpresentatif des Associations Noires en France (Representative Council of Black Associations in France), which was the first umbrella organization of its kind in the country. He has long been an outspoken advocate against discrimination, having founded Cercle d’action pour la Diversité (Circle of Action for Diversity) in 2003, which combats all forms of discrimination affecting, among others, blacks, homosexuals, and Jews.

Also available: 13 3/16 x 10 9/16" in 20 x 16" mat, edition of 15, $3,000; 36 x 32" on 46 x 40" mount, edition of 6, $9,500

PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER (b. 1924) was the 39th President of the United States, serving from 1977 to 1981. Following his presidency, he established the nonpartisan and nonprofit Carter Center to promote democracy, protect human rights, prevent disease, and resolve conflict. The center’s health programs have led the international effort to eradicate Guinea worm disease, which is poised to be the second human disease in history to be completely eliminated. He and his wife, Rosalynn, volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit organization that helps needy people in the U.S. and in other countries renovate and build homes for themselves. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his decades of work on human rights, conflict mediation, and the promotion of economic and social development.

Also available: 11 1/16 x 10 1/8" matted to 20 x 16", edition of 15, $3,000; 36 x 33 1/4" on 46 x 40" mount, edition of 6, $9,500

THERESIA DEGENER (b. 1961) is a German law professor and a leading expert and advisor on international human rights, disability, discrimination, bioethics, and gender laws. Born disabled, she has forged a remarkable career as a human rights advocate, including serving as Germany’s delegate to the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee, which drafted a convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. She has contributed seminal research on the issue of violence against women with disabilities. In 2010 she was elected a member of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

MIMI (MERCEDES) DORETTI (b. 1959) was a student assistant to the forensic anthropologist Clyde Snow, who provided crucial testimony at the trial of the generals following the restoration of democracy in Argentina. She founded the Argentine Forensic Team in 1984, which conducts exhumations of the victims of human rights abuses worldwide. Today she is the leading international figure in the field of forensic anthropology, instructing a great many others in how to conduct such exhumations and continuing to perform forensic work uncovering human rights abuses in other countries. Her efforts demonstrate that science can be a potent tool in the pursuit of human rights by laying the dead to rest and bringing the truth to light.

BRYAN STEVENSON (b. 1959) was a child when the civil rights movement toppled the Jim Crow system in the American South. As a law student at Harvard during the early 1980s, he interned with the Southern Center for Human Rights, where he confronted the legacies of segregation and persistent racism in the criminal justice system. In 1989, Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, a fitting home for an organization that continues the work of Martin Luther King Jr., whose final days were dedicated to tackling the systemic inequities that were beyond the reach of direct action protests and civil rights legislation. As director of EJI, and through his work as a litigator, law professor, and activist, Stevenson has mounted a sustained challenge to the inhumanity and injustices experienced by the poor and people of color at all levels of the justice system in the southern United States, saving lives, mobilizing public sentiment, and securing elemental changes. Stevenson's book, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, was published in 2014 and subsequently made into a widely acclaimed movie.

JESSELYN RADACK (b. 1970) served as an Ethics Advisor to the Justice Department during the first terrorism prosecution following 9/11. Later, she served on the D.C. Bar Legal Ethics Committee and now represents whistleblowers as the National Security and Human Rights Director of the Government Accountability Project. Her 2012 book TRAITOR: The Whistleblower and the “American Taliban” became a best seller among human rights books.

TEO SOH LUNG (b. 1949) was detained without trial for more than two years in Singapore for defending the independence of the press and the legal profession. She helped found the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme of the Singapore Law Society in 1985 and emerged on the political scene as an opposition candidate in Singapore’s 2011 general election.

KOFI ANNAN (1938-2018) was the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, serving two terms from 1997-2006. He was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with the UN in 2001. Kofi Annan played a key role in the establishment of the Global AIDS and Health Fund, and continued to work on behalf of the neediest and most vulnerable people in the world, particularly in Africa. He remained active in mediation and conflict resolution through the Kofi Annan Foundation and was a strong advocate for good governance, the rule of law, and human rights.

Also available: 11 1/2 x 10 1/2" matted to 20 x 16", edition of 15, $3,000; 16 5/16 x 15" matted to 30 x 24", edition of 6, $5,000

KHATUN SAPNARA (b. 1967) is a London barrister who specializes in family law and a judge who presides over both family and criminal law cases. She was born in Bangladesh and is a practicing Muslim fluent in Bengali and Sylheti. In 2004 she was appointed by the Lord Chancellor to the Family Justice Council to advise the government on all aspects of the family justice system. Sapnara was the first person from a minority background to be elected to the Committee of the Family Law Bar Association. She regularly undertakes diversity training of the judiciary on behalf of the Judicial Studies Board. She is the Chair of Ashiana, a refuge and support agency for female victims of domestic violence and forced marriage from South East Asian, Turkish, and Iranian backgrounds. She has expertise in honor-based violence and assisted in drafting the Forced Marriage Act of 2007.

Also available: 12 3/4 x 10 3/8" matted to 20 x 16", edition of 15, $3,000; 36 x 29 3/4 mounted to 46 x 40", edition of 6, $9,500

HINA JILANI (b. 1953) has been an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan since 1992 and was the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Human Rights Defenders from 2000 until 2008. Jilani was appointed Advocate of the High Court of Pakistan in 1981, and in the same year she established Pakistan’s first all-female law firm. Her cases have set the standard for human rights in Pakistan. Throughout her career, she focused on the rights of women, minorities, children, and prisoners. In 1999 she was honored with the Human Rights Award by the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, and in 2000 she received the Amnesty International Genetta Sagan Award for Human Rights. As the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Human Rights Defenders from 2000 to 2008, she has been part of critical human rights investigations undertaken by the UN in places like Darfur and Gaza. Her sister, Asma Jahangir, is President of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan and was the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief from 2004 to 2010.

TAKNA JIGME SANGPO (b. 1926) was first sentenced to three years of “re-education through labor” by the Chinese in 1964 for teaching Tibetan history, culture, and language to children. He spent 37 years as a political prisoner—the longest prison term served by a Tibetan—until he was released on medical parole in 2002 at the age of 76. He was known as “one of the most determined and intransigent political prisoners in Drapchi…highly respected by other political prisoners.” He now lives in Switzerland as a political refugee.

Also available: 10 15/16 x 10 11/16" matted to 20 x 16", edition of 15, $3,000; 36 x 35 1/2" mounted to 46 x 40", edition of 6, $9,500

KWAME ANTHONY APPIAH (b. 1954) is a Ghanaian-British-American moral theorist and philosopher, descended from a long line of politicians. His father, Joe Appiah, was a member of the first Ghanaian Parliament; his maternal grandfather, Sir Stafford Cripps, was Labor Chancellor of the Exchequer (1947-50); and his great-grandfather was Charles Cripps, the Labor Leader of the House of Lords (1929-1931). Appiah was President of the PEN American Center from 2009-2012, and is a professor of philosophy and African-American studies at Princeton. An influential voice in the debates about Afro-centrism and cosmopolitanism, he argues that we are bound to others by obligations that transcend sharing citizenship and that we should continually be educating ourselves about the practices and beliefs of others.

Frank KAMENY (1925-2011) was an American gay rights activist. In 1957, he was fired from his job as an astronomer in the Army Map Service for being homosexual. Kameny argued his case to the Supreme Court, which denied his petition. He, however, continued to advocate for gay and lesbian civil rights, spearheading a new aggressive era in the movement, leading public protests and demonstrations, and continually pressing for equal treatment of gay citizens. Kameny founded a number of gay rights organizations including the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., which led the first public demonstration at the White House in 1965.

PIUS LANGA (1939-2013) was only nine years old when the policy of apartheid took root in South Africa. He rose from working in a shirt factory to practicing law in Durban, Natal, South Africa, in 1977. He represented many who were charged because they resisted the injustices of colonialism and organized members of the legal profession to bring about a free and democratic South Africa. In 1994, he was appointed one of the first Justices of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, subsequently serving as the first black Chief Justice of South Africa (2005-2009). A witness to apartheid’s atrocities, he was at the forefront of the fight for equality and justice.

SAMANTHA POWER (b. 1970) is an Irish-American academic and writer who served as Special Assistant to President Barack Obama and as Senior Director of Multilateral Affairs on the staff of the National Security Council. Power began her career by covering the Balkan Wars as a journalist, and she won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for her book “A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide, which analyzes U.S. responses to genocide over the last century. She is also the author of Sergio: One Man’s Fight to Save the World, a biography of the famed UN diplomat and troubleshooter Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was slain by a suicide bomber in Iraq in 2003.

RUTH BADER GINSBURG (1933-2020) served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was the second woman ever appointed to the court, and the first Jewish female justice. She was General Counsel for the ACLU from 1973 until 1980, when she was appointed a Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She long advocated for the equal citizenship rights of men and women and was instrumental in launching the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union in 1971. Her work led to the end of gender discrimination in many areas of law, and she distinguished herself as an eloquent oral advocate and a staunch independent on the bench.

CLIVE STAFFORD SMITH (b. 1959) is the British-American Director of the London-based charity Reprieve, which provides legal assistance to prisoners on death row and those held beyond the rule of law in Guantánamo Bay and other secret prisons. Since he left law school in 1984, he has only represented prisoners without resources who could find no other assistance. For 20 years, these were people facing the death penalty in the Deep South, but since moving back to the U.K. in 2004, he now helps prisoners around the world.

Isabelle CHOPIN (b. 1965) persuaded the European Union to adopt its Racial Equality Directive in 2000. She took advantage of the European Union’s existing law on gender discrimination and its embarrassment over the rise of anti-Semitism and xenophobia in the ’90s, especially the ascendancy of a neo-fascist movement in Austria, to accomplish this. It was an outstanding example of making lemonade out of a lemon.