October 14, 2024

Africa’s first elected female head of state to receive 2025 O’Connor Justice Prize

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first democratically elected female head of state in Africa, has been named the 10th recipient of the O’Connor Justice Prize.

The award, administered by the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, was established in 2014 to honor the legacy of the school’s namesake, the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. It recognizes those who have made extraordinary efforts to advance the rule of law, justice and human rights around the world. An advisory board, spearheaded by Ambassador Barbara Barrett and the Honorable Ruth McGregor, selects each recipient annually who best embodies Justice O’Connor’s legacy of service. 

Known globally as “Africa’s Iron Lady,” Johnson Sirleaf earned international acclaim for leading Liberia through the Ebola Crisis and through recovery after a decade-long civil war. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2011 for her achievements. She is also a recipient of The Presidential Medal of Freedom in the U.S. for her commitment to freedom for all Africans and the Mo Ibrahim Prize, the most prestigious award an African leader can be given. 

Johnson Sirleaf rose through the political ranks in her home country throughout the 1960s and 1970s, reaching the position of Minister of Finance in 1979. She was forced to flee Liberia in 1980 amid a coup d'etat and founded Measuagoon, a Liberian NGO, while in self-imposed exile in Cote d’Ivoire. She eventually returned home and was elected President of the Republic of Liberia in 2005, just two years after the country’s civil war ended. She served for two terms and was instrumental in rebuilding the country, lifting United Nations trade sanctions and increasing the national budget. She stepped down from the presidency in 2018 and was instrumental in a peaceful transfer of power – the first in Liberia in over 73 years. 

“Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s exemplary leadership and dedication to the principles of justice, integrity and equality embody the spirit of the O’Connor Justice Prize,” said Stacy Leeds, Willard H. Pedrick Dean, Regents and Foundation Professor of Law. “Like Justice O’Connor’s presence as the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, her tenure as Liberia’s first female democratically elected head of state marked a historic moment for Liberia and Africa and the world at large. Few embody the ideals of this award better than she does.”

Johnson Sirleaf is a member of The Elders, an organization founded by Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, in which world leaders work together to advance peace, justice and human rights. Since leaving the presidency, she has served as the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation’s inaugural Development Advisory Council and was appointed co-chair of the World Health Organization’s Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. She has also established the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development, where she continues to pave the way for women’s leadership and advancement. 

The 2024 O’Connor Justice Prize honoree was Rangina Hamidi, an Afghan American writer, educator, social entrepreneur and politician who served as Afghanistan’s education minister until August 2021. She was the first cabinet-level female minister of education to hold that position in thirty years. Ms. Hamidi works tirelessly to advocate for women’s rights by empowering girls and women through social entrepreneurship and other initiatives to build their lives. She launched Kandahar Treasure, a social enterprise allowing Afghan women to work and earn a living through the sale of hand-crafted embroidery. She faced down the Taliban with demands for education and freedom for women and girls, and continues her brave fight even while exiled from her home country. Watch video. 

Johnson Sirleaf will accept the O’Connor Justice Prize in early 2025 at a ceremony in Phoenix. 

Additional past recipients include:

• Inaugural recipient Navanethem Pillay of South Africa, the former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, was honored for her fight against apartheid and her championing of international human rights.

• Ana Palacio was honored as the first woman to serve as the foreign affairs minister of Spain, member of the Council of State of Spain and former senior vice president and general counsel of the World Bank Group.

• Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, was honored for his humanitarian work after leaving office. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts to find peaceful solutions to conflicts, to advance democracy and promote economic and social development.

• Anson Chan, the former chief secretary of Hong Kong, is known as “Hong Kong’s conscience.” She was honored for her decades of devotion to social justice and democracy. She helped oversee Hong Kong’s transition from British control in 1997.

• Frederik Willem de Klerk, the former South African president, honored for leading the effort to dismantle that country’s apartheid system and co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela in 1993.

• Nadia Murad, the acclaimed Yazidi human rights activist, honored for founding a global initiative to advocate for survivors of violence and genocide, becoming the first Iraqi and Yazidi to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which she received in 2018.

• Judge Elizabeth Odio Benito, president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, honored for her work in creating the modern framework for international justice and decades of teaching, research and leadership around international human rights and, more specifically, women’s rights.

• The Honorable Louise Arbour, former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and high commissioner for human rights for the United Nations. She secured the first conviction for genocide since 1948 and the first indictment for war crimes by a sitting European head of state, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.

Written by Crystal Jimenez