News Archive

IU McKinney Professor George Edwards has received the National Bar Association’s Global Advocate Award. He has received the honor for his contributions to and global impact on the international legal community. He received it May 14 during the organization’s international summit, which took place in a virtual format.

The organization’s Global Advocate Award honors those who have demonstrated a commitment to advocating for change and charging calls to action toward human and civil rights on an international scale. Professor Edwards has been appointed by the NBA to many roles in the diplomatic conference circuit within the United Nations over the years. “It’s an honor to be singled out, and it’s quite humbling today, but the true honor goes to the NBA, to the founders, to the leaders, to the domestic and overseas members,” he said in his acceptance speech. “And I’m just hopeful that more of us will become even more involved in these efforts to promote and protect human rights and the rule of law in the United States and overseas.” The portion of the video from the ceremony that features Professor Edwards begins at the 25:11 mark.

The photo is from when Professor Edwards was a visiting Fellow in Bangkok, Thailand, at Chulalongkorn Law School in 2018.

It’s the second time the organization has honored Professor Edwards within the last 12 months. He received the bar association’s Sankofa Award on July 29, 2020, during the annual meeting. Indiana University presented him with the John W. Ryan Award for Distinguished Contributions to International Programs and Studies on April 5.

The Program in International Human Rights Law, which Professor Edwards founded in 1997 at IU McKinney, was the first law school in the U.S. to which the UN granted “Special Consultative Status.” The status was conferred in 2011.

Professor Edwards is the Carl M. Gray Professor of Law, and the founder of the Guantanamo Bay Cuba Military Commission Monitoring Project at IU McKinney. He has been elected as delegate to two Presidential National Conventions, attended two others, and has worked on political campaigns at all levels, from local to the presidential, including working at primaries and caucuses around the U.S., primarily on legal matters related to voter protection.