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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.

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Eleanor Roosevelt and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, November 1949 © Wikimedia Commons

“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

2023 Honorees

The Elton John AIDS Foundation, ONE Campaign, World Central Kitchen, and the World Justice Project received the 2023 Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Global Human Rights Advancement in a ceremony on September 6, held at the New York City Bar Association.

Sponsors of the Eleanor Roosevelt 2023 Reception.

2022 Honorees

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).

View all remarks from the 2019 ceremony here.

2018 Honorees

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.

View all remarks from the 2018 ceremony here.