Join us for our Luncheon and

Panel Discussion as we Welcome the

2024 International Women of Courage to Los Angeles!

The U.S. Secretary of State's annual International Women of Courage Award recognizes women from around the globe who have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to peace, human rights, women's empowerment, and more. Often at great personal risk, these amazing women have dedicated their lives to advance our world.

Enjoy the opportunity to hear firsthand from these extraordinary women during a moderated panel discussion and luncheon on Tuesday, March 12^th. Celebrate with us as they share their stories of exceptional courage and commitment to improving our global society!

Discussion moderator:

Joumana Silyan-Saba

Joumana Silyan-Saba is the Director of Policy for the City of Los Angeles Department of Civil and Human Rights. Joumana is an accomplished public leader, with a career in public service spanning 18 years of experience in non-profit, city government, and academia. With a sense of optimism, Joumana is committed to diplomacy, inclusion, and bringing about social change to expand equity and inclusion. In her role at LA Civil Rights, Joumana is instituting the discrimination enforcement operation aimed at implementing the LA Civil Rights Law.  

Meet the Women:

AFGHANISTAN

Benafsha Yaqoobi, who is visually impaired, worked for years as an attorney defending the rights of women who face violence. In 2008 she and her husband founded the Rahyab Organization to provide education and rehabilitation to visually impaired people in Afghanistan. Read More

BANGLADESH

Fawzia Karim Firoze is a Bangladeshi Supreme Court advocate who has fought for the rights of marginalized groups for more than three decades. Ms. Firoze is currently the head of her own law chamber and serves as the Chairperson for the Foundation for Law and Development. Read More

BELARUS

Volha Harbunova is a Belarusian human rights defender who has dedicated her life to advocating for the rights of women, children, the LGBTQI+ community, and other marginalized groups in Belarus. Read More

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Ajna Jusić is a psychologist and a feminist from Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, who currently resides in Sarajevo. In 2018, she founded the Forgotten Children of War Association, the first organization in the Western Balkans to advocate for the social and legal visibility of children born of rape during war and against the associated social stigma. Read More

BURMA

Myintzu Win, a veteran criminal defense lawyer, champions the rights of marginalized communities in Burma despite significant obstacles in the legal landscape. Her service extends to women, children, the indigent, persons with disabilities, and the LGBTQI+ community. She works to safeguard their fundamental rights and to ensure fair trials. Read More

ECUADOR

Fátima Corozo is a dedicated community leader and youth advocate in Esmeraldas, Ecuador’s most violent city. Born in Isla Luis Vargas Torres, one of the most violent enclaves within Esmeraldas, Ms. Corozo is a staunch defender and protector of the city’s youth. Read More

THE GAMBIA

Fatou Baldeh, a survivor of female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C), waded into this highly contentious and polarizing issue as an unwavering advocate for critical protections that can mean life or death for women and girls. Read More

IRAN

Fariba Balouch is a London-based Iranian human rights activist. She is from Iran’s Sistan and Baluchistan Province and is a member of Iran’s marginalized Baluchi ethnic group. She is outspoken about women’s rights and the human rights crisis in Sistan and Baluchistan, which has been disproportionately affected by regime violence, executions, and systemic discrimination. Read More

JAPAN

At the age of 11, Rina Gonoi and her family were victims of the tragic triple disaster in Japan. When a female Japan Self-Defense Force (JSDF) officer assisted Rina and her family during the evacuation, she was inspired to follow in the officer’s footsteps and join the JSDF herself, which she did in 2020. Read More

MOROCCO

Rabha El Haymar is a courageous Moroccan woman who successfully navigated her country’s legal system and fought to obtain, through a recourse provided by Morocco’s family code reform of 2004, recognition of her traditional marriage to spare her daughter a life of marginalization and discrimination as an undocumented child. Read More

UGANDA

Agather Atuhaire is a renowned journalist, lawyer, and social justice activist who advocates for human rights, public accountability, and the rule of law in Uganda. Her work as a journalist has brought to light parliamentary abuse of process, threats to multi-party democracy and governance, health sector abuses, sexual harassment in the NGO sector, and violations of students’ rights.

Read More

These awardees will not be traveling to Los Angeles:

CUBA

Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello has been a Cuban political dissident and leading proponent of human rights and religious freedom in Cuba for more than four decades, during which she founded and led several prominent human rights and democracy organizations. As the only woman among 75 persons imprisoned during the Black Spring in 2003, Ms. Roque was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Read More

Madeleine Albright Honorary Group Award - Nine Women Activists Among the 222 Political Prisoners from Nicaragua

These nine women represent a wide swath of civil society. Before their arrests, these women worked as human rights defenders, journalists, politicians, and women’s rights activists to fight for basic freedoms in President Daniel Ortega and his wife Vice President Rosario Murillo’s autocracy. All of them were exiled to the United States and stripped of Nicaraguan citizenship, rendering them effectively stateless. They remain engaged, particularly with the diaspora.

Members: $70 | Non-Members: $85

Limited seating available, please register by March 8^th