The Michael Huffington Lecture
Featuring Oleksandra Matviichuk
 (1)-400x599.jpg)
"Unpunished Evil Grows: Why Do We Need to Change the Global Approach to War Crimes Justice?"
Thursday, April 11, 2024 | 3 p.m.
Ahmanson Auditorium
Loyola Marymount University
Oleksandra Matviichuk is a human rights lawyer focusing on issues in Ukraine and the OSCE region. She leads the human rights NGO Center for Civil Liberties and coordinates the activities of the initiative group Euromaidan SOS.
The Center for Civil Liberties is dedicated to promoting human rights and democracy in Ukraine and the OSCE region. It works on legislative reforms, conducts public oversight of law enforcement agencies and the judiciary, organizes educational initiatives, and implements international solidarity programs.
Euromaidan SOS was established in response to the violent suppression of a peaceful student protest in Kyiv on November 30, 2013. Throughout the three-month mass protests known as the Revolution of Dignity, thousands of volunteers provided round-the-clock legal and humanitarian assistance to persecuted individuals across the country. Since the onset of Russian aggression in Ukraine in 2014, the initiative has monitored political persecution in occupied Crimea, documented war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Donbas region, and spearheaded international campaigns like #LetMyPeopleGo and #SaveOlegSentsov to secure the release of political prisoners held by Russian authorities.
Oleksandra Matviichuk has authored numerous alternative reports submitted to various UN bodies, the Council of Europe, the European Union, the OSCE, and the International Criminal Court.
In response to the full-scale war beginning in February 2022, Oleksandra Matviichuk and other partners launched the Tribunal for Putin initiative to document international crimes. Since 2019, she has co-founded a Roundtable on religious freedom, aiming to create a free and secure space for collaborative decision-making to promote religious freedom, peacebuilding, counter radical ideologies and extremism, and enhance sustainable peace and security through identification and focus on common interests and agreements among participants.
Awards:
- Democracy Defender Award for "Outstanding Contribution to Promoting Democracy and Human Rights" from OSCE missions (2016)
- Right Livelihood Award (2022)
- Named one of the 25 most influential women in the world by Financial Times (2022) Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament (2022)
- Nobel Peace Prize (2022, awarded to the Center for Civil Liberties led by Oleksandra Matviichuk)
Reception immediately following.