Content warning: This article contains mentions of violence.

Guatemalan judge Miguel Ángel Gálvez will receive the eighth Global Jurist of the Year Award from Pritzker School of Law’s Center for International Human Rights, Northwestern announced Thursday. 

The University is recognizing Gálvez for his history of protecting human rights and defending the rule of law in Guatemala, according to an NU press release.

The award honors sitting judges committed to human rights or international criminal justice. 

“Judge Gálvez’s courage and integrity epitomizes what it means to be a global jurist,” Pritzker Profs. Juliet Sorensen and Ibrahim Gassama said in the press release. Gassama is also the interim director of the center.

Past award recipients include Canadian judge Rosalie Abella and Kenyan judge Mumbi Ngugi.

Gálvez held perpetrators of genocide and murder — including dictators, presidents and oligarchs — legally accountable during the Guatemalan Civil War. Government forces killed thousands of people during the war, including those from indigenous Maya communities.

Gálvez stepped down as a judge in November after more than two decades on the bench, subsequently going into exile due to a push from Guatemalan president Alejandro Giammattei.

Gálvez will accept the award at Pritzker’s campus on March 1.

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Twitter: @kaavya_butaney

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