On March 8th, 2024, International Women’s Day, Professor Elsa Stamatopoulou, Director of ISHR’s Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Program, was granted a Lifetime Achievement Award by the New York City Bar Association, on the occasion of the 5th International Law Conference on the Status of Women.

The award, established in 2020, recognizes women and women-centric organizations focusing on justice work. The International Law Conference dealt with the current status of women and highlights the role of judges, lawyers, human rights experts and policy advocates working to improve the status of women and girls by enforcing their legal rights through accountability and improving their economic opportunities to support themselves and their families.

Before joining Columbia University in 2011, Elsa spent 23 years working on human rights issues at the United Nations, in addition to seven years as the first Chief of the Secretariat of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues starting in 2003.