Lawyers don’t always have the best reputation but the vast majority entered the profession with a desire to do good and see justice served.
Over the years there have been a number of incredibly influential lawyers who have worked tirelessly to change the world for the better including several who were instrumental in the development of human rights laws. These laws protect each and every one of us from terrible experiences and ensure we have access to the basic levels of human decency that we take for granted on a daily basis.
Read on to discover more about the incredible men and women who have had a fundamental impact on the world of human rights as we know it today. Whether you are looking to one day become a human rights lawyer yourself, or are simply interested in finding out more about some pretty impressive people, this blog is packed with interesting stories and information about 5 of the best human rights lawyers to ever walk the Earth.
Adam Wagner
Adam Wagner is a human rights lawyer that has worked at pretty much every level of human rights law that you could possibly imagine, all the way up to the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights.
Wagner is renowned for his work in protecting human rights and has repeatedly been successful in helping his clients take action against the police or other authority groups and had taken part in six separate major public inquiries.
In 2019, Wagner represented a group called the Campaign Against Anti Semitism as part of a formal investigation into discrimination against Jewish people within the Labour Party.
When his is not active in the courtroom, Wagner spends his time lecturing on human rights as a visiting professor and working with his own charity RightsInfo to spread knowledge of human rights law as far and wide as possible.
Julian Falconer
Julian Falconer runs his own law firm in his native Canada and have represented clients a number of well-known human rights cases. In fact, Falconer is particularly well-known for his representation of Maher Arar who was tortured after being deported to Syria as the case saw the largest settlement given in a human rights case in Canada to a single plaintiff. Falconer is passionate about issues such as child welfare, right to education, and indigenous people’s rights.
Hilary Stauffer
Perhaps the most well travelled human rights lawyer on this list, Hilary Stauffer works all over the globe and have previously worked in Europe, America, Africa, and Asia.
During her career Stauffer has worker in a variety of roles involving human rights, including as a diplomat, NGO executive, and in advising law firms.
Kimberly Motley
Former Beauty queen, Kimberly Motley is one of the most well-known human rights lawyers in the world thanks to the incredible work she has done in Afghanistan. She was the lawyer who represented Robert Langdon, an Australian soldier detained in one of the most notorious prisons in the country and her arguments led to a presidential pardon being granted, and Langdon being released.
Motley has been a trailblazer her entire career and was the very first foreign lawyer to work in Afghanistan.
Fatou Bensouda
The former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda is now the Gambian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and is one of the most influential human rights lawyers to ever have lived.
As chief prosecutor at the ICC Bensouda worked to investigate war crimes that were committed by US forces, and allies, in Afghanistan and violated the human rights of captive soldiers. This led to the US banning her from ever visiting the country but reinforced her status as a lawyer devoted to protecting the fundamental rights of each and ever human on the planet.
This commitment hasn’t gone unnoticed either, and in 2009, Bensouda received the ICJ International Jurists award for her work across the globe before receiving the World Peace Through Law award in 2011.
More recently in 2017, Bensouda was names in Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential humans on earth, whilst she still worked at the ICC.
