Pritzker School of Law’s Center for International Human Rights announced it will award its seventh Global Jurist of the Year Award to all women judges in Afghanistan in a Wednesday news release.

Judge Anisa Rasooli will accept the award on behalf of all women judges in Afghanistan at an awards dinner Feb. 9, 2022. A group of Afghan women judges who have left Afghanistan will accompany Rasooli.

The award honors a sitting judge who has demonstrated courage in the face of adversity to protect human rights or international criminal justice. This year, Pritzker is giving the award to all women judges in Afghanistan to recognize their bravery in light of the danger they faced when the Taliban took over, including the release of prisoners they had previously sentenced.

“The women judges of Afghanistan have, by their example and through their work, demonstrated unimaginable courage and commitment,” Pritzker Profs. Tom Geraghty and Juliet Sorensen said in a joint statement in the release.

The event will be co-sponsored by Pritzker’s International Refugee Assistance Project, Northwestern’s Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, the International Association of Women Judges and the International Law Foundation. 

Rasooli, who left Afghanistan and now lives in Poland with her family, is the only woman to have been nominated for the Afghan Supreme Council twice. She has served in all major courts.

Rasooli also served on the anti-corruption court and the court for serious crimes of violence against women and is known as “the RBG of Afghanistan.”

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