Justice Richard Goldstone receives the MacArthur Award for International Justice.

 The South African judge and prosecutor is being honoured by the US-based MacArthur foundation for his work as Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia (ICTY & ICTR).
 

The Award is given to individuals and organisations that have been transformative forces in the fields of human rights and international justice, making significant contributions to advancing both fields.

In selecting Goldstone for the Award, the Foundation's Board of Directors cited his role in the development of the modern era of international justice:

"As Chief Prosecutor, Goldstone set a high moral and legal standard for tribunals. He insisted on the independence of counsel and judges, transparency in the establishment of facts in each case, due process for the accused, and the importance of first-hand testimony from witnesses and surviving victims. His clarity of vision and meticulous approach to justice brought both a degree of resolution to victims and a new model for the prosecution of crimes against humanity."

As the first 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. 

In 1995, Goldstone 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, as well as torture, rape, the shelling of Sarajevo, and the sacking of mosques and Catholic churches.

Prior to his appointment as Chief Prosecutor in 1994, Goldstone was chair of the Commission of Inquiry Regarding Public Violence and Intimidation (commonly called "the Goldstone Commission") 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 justice of the Constitutional Court. He currently serves as the first Spinoza Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study.

In accepting the Award, Justice Goldstone said, "I am delighted that the MacArthur Award recognizes the centrality in the 21st Century of international criminal justice. It is a system that withdraws impunity for war criminals even if they are sitting heads of state. It is also a system that recognizes the inherent dignity of all human beings and seeks to bring official acknowledgement to victims of atrocity crimes."

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. At Justice Goldstone's suggestion, MacArthur is awarding grants of $100,000 each to the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation; the International Bar Association; the International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life at Brandeis University; the International Center for Transitional Justice; and Physicians for Human Rights.

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 (ICC) and encouraging the development of the concept of the Responsibility to Protect.

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