Domestic Awardee

This year’s domestic award recipient is Opal Tometi and the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI).

Opal is one of the three co-founders of Black Lives Matter and a strong internationalist, pulling BLM into larger issues of U.S. engagement in the world. BAJI works to promote immigrant rights and racial justice through issue education, advocacy, and cross-cultural alliance building in order to end racism, criminalization, and economic disenfranchisement of African-American and Black immigrant communities.

International Awardee

Our international award recipient is Javier Rojas Uriana, the legal representative of the Shipia Wayuu Association located in La Guajira, Colombia.

IPS believes this is an organization whose struggle is emblematic of the challenges that post-conflict Colombia will face as it seeks to implement the November 2016 peace accord. The Shipia Wayuu Association is dedicated to strengthening indigenous Wayuu culture and defending the community’s human rights, particularly the rights to life, survival, and culture.