Thursday, October 22, New York City

Honoring: Brazilian human rights defender Sandra Carvalho and Colombian human rights defender Principe Gabriel González

Saluting: Michael Posner, founding executive director of Human Rights First

Special Guest: Tom Brokaw

Dinner Chairs: Andi and Tom A. Bernstein, Daniel and Alisa Doctoroff, and William D. Zabel and Deborah Miller

View Photos of the Event»

Sandra Carvalho
Brazilian human rights defender

Over the past two decades, Sandra Carvalho, co-founder of Justiça Global, one of Brazil’s most respected human rights groups, has courageously defended human rights in Brazil—taking on the Brazilian authorities, military, and organized crime—and then working to hold the perpetrators of abuse accountable. Her reputation as a fearless defender of the poor and disenfranchised is built on her repeated efforts to halt the activities of Rio de Janeiro’s police-run death squads, to expose the appalling conditions in prisons across the country, to advance the social and economic human rights (especially land claims) of vulnerable communities in Brazil’s resource-rich interior, and to protect Brazilian human rights defenders under attack. Sandra has made a career of taking on Brazil’s most powerful and entrenched interests, doing so at great personal risk.

Principe Gabriel González
Colombian human rights advocate

A human rights advocate since university, Principe Gabriel González has spent years exposing degrading treatment of Colombian political prisoners. Ironically, González’s advocacy led to his own arrest and detention. He was detained for over one year, lived in exile to escape judicial harassment, and now faces seven more years in prison on trumped-up charges if his appeal to Colombia’s Supreme Court is not successful. González credits Human Rights First’s relentless advocacy for his freedom.