Changemaking and the Law

Alain Werner is a lawyer/director of Civitas Maxima, the Swiss NGO fighting for international justice. He organized a mock trial event on Zoom in partnership with Philanthropic Adventures, an educational platform, and the International School of Geneva. The trial took place in a fake country called...

Ashoka Fellow Alain Werner, the director of the Geneva-based legal organization Civitas Maxima, played a critical role in the conviction of former warlord Alieu Kosiah. “This is a landmark judgment, not only because it is the first war crimes conviction against a Liberian commander, but because it...

"In 2013, Alain Werner, the Swiss lawyer who runs Civitas Maxima, an organization investigating crimes on behalf of Liberian victims to prosecute perpetrators in national courts, received a tip: a former ULIMO commander was living near Lake Geneva." Ashoka Fellow Alain Werner and organization...

Watch the interview on YouTube! With the goal of ending discriminatory surveillance, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) challenges individual misconduct and broader systemic failures. S.T.O.P. creates policies that balance new technologies and age-old rights while educating...

"As President Biden aims to take the global lead on combating the climate crisis, he is also focusing on local, neighborhood-level issues with a pledge to invest in minority communities who too often bear the brunt of environmental degradation." Vivek Maru, founder of Namati and an Ashoka Fellow...

Van Jones, now a CNN commentator, but selected as Ashoka Fellow 20 years ago for his work to address racial bias and bring accountability to policing, contrasts the Rodney King verdict of 1992 with this week’s verdict in Minneapolis, and how the latter signals to young Black people: “ We CAN make...

In a landmark ruling yesterday, California’s Supreme Court moved a significant step closer to ending cash bail - a system that forces millions into jail pre-trial who cannot afford to pay. Fellow Gina Clayton-Johnson, founder of Oakland-based Essie Justice Group, says bail is the mechanism that has...

"Health inequality was badly exposed during this pandemic, but Priti Krishtel says it doesn't have to be this way. She is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the non-profit Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge. She spoke to Hari Sreenivasan about the need to rethink how patents are...

"The minimum wage has stagnated at $7.25 an hour for more than a decade. Is increasing it to $15 the best way to fight poverty?" Ashoka Fellow Saru Jayaraman, the president of One Fair Wage and director of the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley joins Jeffrey Miron...

Ashoka Fellow Priti Krishtel, the founder and executive director of the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge weighs in on Bidens selections for the next director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the weight that the president's decision carries.

Rachel Armstrong, Ashoka Fellow and the founder and executive of Farm Commons weighs in on the legal needs of small-scale farmers, protecting themselves from lawsuits, and increasing legal resiliency.

"Civil liberties advocates are warning that the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol could lead to new police and surveillance powers. If history is a guide, they say, those tools could be used against Blacks and other people of color in the justice system, not the white rioters who stormed Congress."...

On January 13th, we talk to Albert Fox Cahn, founder of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), about the threats and opportunities of surveillance technology, and why we must update the social contract for the digital age. Watch the Video on YouTube This conversation is part of...

"Fellow Swapna Reddy is making sure asylum seekers are seen as the strong, resilient changemakers they are - in their own lives and in American society."

Albert Fox Cahn advocated for the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology (POST) Act. Passed in June 2020, the Act will require the NYPD to disclose every spy tool it uses.

From November 17th to 19th, 2020, the Ashoka Changemakers Summit is taking place virtually around the globe. Ashoka's Integrity Team is excited to participate by hosting a panel on Changemaker Lawyers on Wednesday at 2pm EST. Learn more about our talk and the panelists in our packet. Learn More...

"For law firms, the key to preparing for post-pandemic growth is to pay attention to where the proverbial snow is melting."

Which part of the justice system has most resisted change? It's not the police - At least 60 district attorneys have come to see incarceration as destructive, racist, expensive and ineffective. But can they persuade their own staffs? Adam Foss founded Prosecutor Impact to repair our criminal justice...

Supporting a new generation of lawyers and legal organizations to work alongside progressive movements for change