Irwin Cotler is a Canadian international legal scholar, parliamentarian, former attorney general, and minister of justice of Canada. Cotler founded the Save Darfur Parliamentary Coalition and, most recently, the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights in Canada. He also worked to bring Nazi war criminals to justice. As an international human rights lawyer, Cotler has represented Nelson Mandela, Jacobo Timerman, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, and Natan Sharansky; Saudi blogger Raif Badawi; Venezuelan political prisoner Leopoldo López; and Iranian cleric Ayatollah Boroujerdi. He is the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Canadian Bar Association’s President’s Award, the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation’s Centennial Medal, the Romeo Dallaire Award for Human Rights Leadership, the Sir Zafrullah Khan Award for Distinguished Public Service, the 2015 Dalhousie University Ethical Leadership Award, the 2015 Sergei Magnitsky Human Rights Award, and most recently the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Human Rights Award.
