The MacArthur Foundation will honor Justice Richard J. Goldstone, former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, with the MacArthur Award for International Justice. The Award provides Goldstone with $100,000 for his own work and invites him to suggest an additional $500,000 in support for non-profit organizations working on international justice issues. The Award will be conferred upon Justice Goldstone in The Hague on May 25, 2009.

“Justice Goldstone has played an instrumental role in building the emerging international system of justice,” said MacArthur President Jonathan Fanton in remarks at a conference on international justice at American University. “He gave the tribunals moral authority and legal credibility. It is, in large part, a testament to the quality of his work that the international community accepted the Rome Statute and established the International Criminal Court with confidence. His unquestioned competence and integrity won the faith of the world.”

As Chief Prosecutor of the Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, Goldstone helped shepherd these courts, the first of their kind since Nazi war criminals were tried at Nuremberg following World War II. He stressed the importance of reaching top political and military perpetrators and, in 1995, filed charges of genocide and crimes against humanity against Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic for their roles in the “ethnic cleansing” of Bosnian Muslims.

Goldstone also chaired the Commission of Inquiry Regarding Public Violence and Intimidation in the aftermath of apartheid in his native South Africa. His service on the Commission proved invaluable to the democratic transition in that country, where he also served as an inaugural member of the Constitutional Court.

“It is an honor to receive the MacArthur Award for International Justice, as the Foundation has been a leader in supporting efforts to advance human rights and international justice,” said Justice Goldstone. “Since the early 1990s, we have witnessed the emergence of a system of international justice that is growing stronger with each new case tried in a regional court or UN tribunal and with each investigation opened by the International Criminal Court. It has given me tremendous pride and satisfaction to have played a role in ensuring that the perpetrators of mass atrocities have more reason today than ever to fear being brought to justice.” 

Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan was the first recipient of the Award in 2008 in recognition of his contribution to building the International Criminal Court and encouraging the development of the concept of the Responsibility to Protect.

The MacArthur Foundation has long supported efforts to fashion an integrated system of international justice that includes the International Criminal Court, regional human rights courts and commissions, special tribunals impaneled by the UN, and domestic justice systems. The Award was created to raise awareness of human rights and international justice issues. As part of this effort, the Foundation is supporting a series of regional conferences across the United States at DePaul University, American University, Yale University, and the University of California at Berkeley. Read the press release