Stanford Law School welcomed prominent Ethiopian human rights practitioner Seife Ayalew Asfaw to campus as the inaugural recipient of the Rubin Family International Human Rights Award. The new award recognizes young leaders in the international social justice movement by bringing one to Stanford Law School as a practitioner-in-residence for two weeks every year. During his visit in April, Asfaw collaborated with thought leaders and connected with program resources throughout Stanford Law and the university and shared strategies with social justice leaders in the Bay Area.

Asfaw has dedicated his career to expanding Ethiopian citizens’ knowledge of and access to legal services. He initiated and collaboratively organized the National Legal Aid Service Providers Network and developed national training manuals for legal aid service providers. He intends to establish an impact litigation project in partnership with private law offices, NGOs, and law schools when he returns to Ethiopia.

The Rubin Family International Human Rights Award is designed to enhance the practitioner-in-residence’s capacity to influence policies, practices, and laws that promote systems-changing responses to significant human rights problems. By uniting legal education with a spirit of application to the world’s most pressing human rights crises, this award will also create opportunities for Stanford Law students to participate in globalized citizenship and advance a focus on the realization of human rights.