Social justice changemakers

The selection

• A Buon DirittoRome, Italy“A buon diritto: a non-profit association that has been defending the rights of marginalised people for 20 years, especially those deprived of their liberty. If the degree of civilisation of a country is measured by that of its prisons, the Italian situation is very serious. A buon diritto takes on questions that politics tends to ignore, and which are nonetheless fundamental.”Recommended by Ilaria Gaspari
• Brique par BriqueMontreal, CanadaRecommended by JJ Hazoumé
• Café MarulandaYotoco, Colombia“A former guerrilla growing peace through coffee is the kind of second life worth celebrating.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Elman Peace and Human Rights CentreMogadishu, Somalia“Ilwad chose to return to Mogadishu to do this work, and that choice tells you everything.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Enzo TortoraMilan, Italy“Because his wrongful imprisonment became a catalyst for Italian judicial reform, and because he transformed personal injustice into a campaign for systemic change.”Recommended by Alberto Alemanno
• Equal Justice InitiativeMontgomery, USA“Bryan Stevenson reminds me that getting close to injustice is where real change starts.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• FairphoneAmsterdam, Netherlands“Bas showed that a phone can be built with repair and fair sourcing in mind, and that pressures the whole industry.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Ford FoundationNew York, USA“Aiming their giving squarely at inequality, and divesting from fossil fuels, is leadership worth naming.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Hannah ArendtNew York City, USA“Because she insisted on understanding politics as the realm of human plurality and action rather than administration, and because she never stopped asking what makes democratic life possible beyond bureaucratic processes.”Recommended by Alberto Alemanno
• HasdeoRaipur, India“Alok stands between the forest and the mine, and he does it by amplifying the people who live there.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Hindou Oumarou IbrahimN'Djamena, Chad“Hindou carries her community's knowledge of the land onto the world stage, and we need that voice.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• isiMpondoXolobeni, South Africa“Their stand for ancestral land reminds me that protecting a place and honoring the people on it are one and the same.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Judith ShklarCambridge, MA, USA“Because she built an entire political theory around “putting cruelty first” as the foundation of liberalism, and because she showed that defending ordinary citizens from arbitrary power - whether public or private - is the core democratic project, not some secondary concern after we’ve sorted out grand constitutional principles.”Recommended by Alberto Alemanno
• Libera TerraCorleone, Italy“Turning land taken from the mafia into honest farming work is justice you can taste.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• NavdanyaDehradun, India“Vandana Shiva defends seeds as a commons, and that fight protects farmers everywhere.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Ralph NaderWashington D.C, USA“Because he demonstrated that one person armed with rigorous research and moral clarity can reshape entire systems of power, and because he never confused access to elites with actual influence over them.”Recommended by Alberto Alemanno
• Sylvio RuizBogotá, ColombiaRecommended by Simon Bernard
• The Child MovementGreater Noida, India“Licypriya started at eight, and she carries the voice of her generation with real force.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Urban TilthRichmond, California, USARecommended by Rob Hopkins
• Ursula HirschmannBrussels, Belgium“Because she co-authored the Ventotene Manifesto’s vision of European federalism while herself stateless, and because she demonstrated that building transnational democracy requires both intellectual courage and practical organizing across borders.”Recommended by Alberto Alemanno
• Éliane Vogel-PolskyBrussels, Belgium“Because she used strategic litigation to establish gender equality as a fundamental EU principle, and because she showed how a single well-crafted legal case can reshape an entire constitutional order.”Recommended by Alberto Alemanno