With unprecedented access, First to Stand brings us our heroes — the one who stand up first. We’ll show that when one finds the courage to stand against authoritative regimes, others follow.
Irwin Cotler is the International Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, an Emeritus Professor of Law at McGill University, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, long-time Member of Parliament, and an international human rights lawyer.
He is the author of numerous publications and seminal legal articles and has written upon and intervened in landmark Charter of Rights cases in the areas of free speech, freedom of religion, minority rights, peace law and war crimes justice.
As Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Irwin Cotler initiated the first-ever comprehensive reform of the Supreme Court appointment process and helped make it the most gender-representative Supreme Court in the world; appointed the first-ever aboriginal and visible minority justices to the Ontario Court of Appeal; initiated the first-ever law on human trafficking; crafted the Civil Marriage Act, the first-ever legislation to grant marriage equality to gays and lesbians; issued Canada’s first National Justice Initiative Against Racism and Hate; quashed more wrongful convictions in a single year than any prior Minister, and made the pursuit of international justice a government priority.
He has been Chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Group for Human Rights in Iran; Chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Group of Justice for Sergei Magnitsky; Chair of the All-Party Save Darfur Parliamentary Coalition; Chair, Canadian section, of the Parliamentarians for Global Action and Member of its international council.
First to Stand – Opening
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Raif Badawi, the Saudi blogger, who was sentenced to ten years and a thousand lashed for “insulting Islam” by encouraging free speech on his blog. His wife Ensaf advocates relentlessly to exert pressure on the Saudi government for his release.
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Bill Browder, British-American financier, multimillionaire, and Putin’s #1 enemy, who created and championed Magnitsky Sanctions, the most effective tool to hold individual human rights abusers accountable.
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Amal Clooney, is a British-Lebanese barrister, specialising in international law and human rights. She is the appointed Deputy Chair of the High-Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom.
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Shaparak Shajarizadeh, tortured, then sentenced to 20 years in prison for her protests against compulsory hijab in Iran. She was named one of the most influential women in the world by the BBC.
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Natan Sharansky, Russian refusnik, who was is sentenced to 13 years in the gulag for seeking an exit visa to Israel and participating in human rights movements. He is still fighting for human rights in Israel and around the world.
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Romeo Dallaire Canadian Lieutenant-General (retired), who led the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Rwanda and disobeyed the command to withdraw peacekeeping forces when the UN denied premission to intervene in the planned massacre.
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Dikgang Moseneke, South African judge and former cellmate of Nelson Mandela. Arrested at the age of fifteen for his anti-apartheid activities, he spent ten years on Robben Island.
Irwin Cotler’s work as “Canadian counsel” to the South African international legal team for Nelson Mandela, participating in anti-apartheid activities on Mandela’s behalf.
Masih Alinejad, journalist, who Iranian agents recently attempted to abduct in an assassination plan intervened by the FBI.
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Also featured are James McGovern, co-chair of the U.S. Human Rights Commission;
Esther Mujawayo, Rwandan Survivor;
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau;
and Judith Abitan, Brandon Silver, and the team at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.