Even in a year overshadowed by a global pandemic, the killing of George Floyd in the U.S. by police underscored the ongoing problem of criminal injustice. It sparked massive protests worldwide by many who oppose—or who have themselves suffered—under broken criminal justice systems. Together with global justice makers, explore the criminalization of poverty and brainstorm, unearth, and craft solutions as they share what inspired them to overcome inequities in their respective criminal justice systems.
This session was curated in partnership with International Bridges to Justice.
Je suis Nadine AMULI FEZA, Licenciée en Droit interne et International de l'Université Catholique de Bukavu et Avocate ausein de International Bridges to justice, programme R.D.Congo. Je travaille entant qu'Avocate chargée de la prise en charge prono des nombreuses causes des individus vulnérables à l'occurrence les femmes et les enfants. Je suis une jeune Leader de ma communauté suite à des nombreuses prestations et proclamée par le Gouvernement national entant que Jeune espoir de la République Démocratique du Congo.
L'égalité des sexes et des chances demeure mon cheval de bataille dans notre société où les démunies n'ont point de mot à dire et se contentent de la place que leur offre la société. Je me constitue en "la voix des sans voix!" en organisant des plaidoyers en faveurs des plus démunies et surtout en mettant une dinette d'alarmes sur la situation de la femme en milieu carcéral tout en contribuant à la bonne administration de la justice par le respect à un procès équitable.
Defense Attorney and Civil Rights / LGBTQI+ Activist, Individual
Mia Frances Yamamoto, born, Poston, Arizona, 1943, in an American concentration camp for Japanese Americans. B.S. 1966, CSULA, US Army 1966 -68, 4th Infantry Division, US Army Vietnam, awarded Army Commendation Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal and Vietnam Service Medal, co-founder, UCLA Asian Pacific Islander Law Student Association, 1969; JD 1971, Legal Aid Foundation, LA 1972-1974, Los Angeles Public Defenders Officer 1974-1984, State Public Defenders Office 1985. Criminal Defense private practice since 1985.
Past President, California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, Japanese American Bar Association and Asian Pacific American Women Lawyers Alliance. Co-founder, Asian Pacific American Bar Association, Multi-Cultural Bar Alliance of Southern California. Founding board member, International Bridges to Justice (Human Rights organization providing training advocacy on behalf of defenders worldwide. Previously served on the boards of the Korean American Bar Association, Los Angeles County Bar Association and American Civil Liberties Union, as well as the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Commission of the ABA.
Honors include Awards from the Women Lawyers Association of LA, Criminal Courts Bar Association of LA, National Lawyers Guild, and others. Received the Spirit of Excellence award from the ABA, Trailblazers Award, NAPABA, Diversity and Educational Pipeline Award from the California State Bar. She has been honored by API Equality, Lambda Legal and the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission. She was awarded the Rainbow Key Award from West Hollywood and the Harvey Milk Legacy Award from Christopher Street West/LA Pride.
She is a frequent media commentator in print, television and radio, relating to issues of criminal and constitutional law, as well as a frequent lecturer and panelist on issues relating to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Born in Damascus in 1990, Muhammad started his professional career working as a citizen journalist with Sham News Network (SNN) and volunteer translator. He founded or co-founded several organizations in 2012 including Damascus Suburbs Command Council, Qarah Local Council, and Qarah News Facebook page. In late 2012, he left Damascus and stayed in his hometown, Qarah. He wrote about his journey and why he left Damascus under an alias, for security reasons, here. 2013, he worked as a News Anchor at a local radio station and as a Communications Manager at Qarah Local Council. In 2014, he fled to neighboring Lebanon where he worked as a Communications Officer with the Assistance Coordination Unit (ACU), a local NGO in Lebanon. Later in 2014, he left Lebanon for Turkey after a brutal incident to which he lost his young sister. He wrote about the incident in this blog. After moving to Turkey, Muhammad worked with several international organizations/companies including Relief International on a health program in northern Syria, Adam Smith International on a program called “Access to Justice and Community Security”, and with the International Bridges to Justice in 2018 when he joined as an Administrative Consultant and was then promoted to Syria Program Coordinator in Sep of the same year, and then again to a Program Manager in early 2020. Muhammad went to Damascus Dental School, but at the final moment, prevented from graduating due to the start of the war.
When he joined the Foundation in 2020, he had more than two decades of experience as a journalist, author and activist. He was a co-founder and executive director emeritus of Man Up Campaign, a global initiative to activate youth to stop violence against women and girls. This led to his selection as the winner of the 2010 GQ Magazine “Better Men Better World” search, and as one of the Women’s eNews ‘21 Leaders for the 21st Century’. Jimmie has served as an adjunct professor of investigative journalism at the New School for Social Research and was a George A Miller Visiting Professor in the Department of African and African-American Studies at the University of Illinois: Champaign-Urbana. For a decade, he has been an adjunct teacher of documentary journalism at the International Center of Photography
As a journalist, he has written for scores of publications following staff tenures at The Washington Post, The Village Voice, LIFE magazine and others. The recipient of honors for his work as a journalist and advocate, he’s been a National Magazine Award finalist, recipient of honors from the Open Society Institute, National Association of Black Journalists, the Carter Center for Mental Health Journalism, the Congressional Black Caucus, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and the Freedom Center in Cincinnati, among many others. His 2005 book Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go To War took readers into the lives of war-affected children around the world in half a dozen countries. His next book project is an oral history of Ferguson, Missouri in the wake of Michael Brown’s death in 2014. He currently contributes to Vanity Fair magazine in addition to his role at the Skoll Foundation.
Jimmie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors, in Philosophy, from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as a Medal of Distinction from Barnard College. He lives in New York City.
Jean Claude Barakamfitiye is the Burundi IBJ program Country manager. He oversees the team of lawyers who grant legal aid to vulnerable people and coordinates the training and capacity building sessions as well as roundtable discussions between lawyers, judges and other judicial actors. He is a graduate of the Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation Program of the School for International Training (SIT, USA Vermont). He holds a Masters’ degree in intellectual Property from Africa University (Mutare, Zimbabwe) and a law degree from the University of Burundi. His commitment to human rights is rooted in extracurricular activities through the UNESCO Club while he was still in high school. He officially delved into human rights defense in 2008 when he received the Janusz KORCZAK Award for the Rights of the Child. He is a lawyer registered with the Burundi Bar Association, a member of East African Law Society.
An international human rights lawyer, ordained minister and former San Francisco public defender, Karen founded IBJ in 2000 after witnessing hundreds of prisoners of all ages being held without trials, usually after being tortured into making 'confessions’. She realised that systematic early access to a lawyer can create global conditions for a “new normal” in which democracy is strengthened, people have access to justice, and we end the use of torture as an investigative tool. IBJ now has a presence in 52 countries and over 22 years, IBJ has supported more than 40,000+ lawyers and defenders who have represented more than 500,000 detainees.
Karen is a recipient of awards from the Skoll Foundation, Echoing Green, Ashoka, and among others, the American Bar Association Human Rights Award, the Gleitsman International Award, Harvard Divinity School Gomes and Alumna awards. Karen is named as one of America’s best leaders by the US News and World Report.
