Human Justice History

Since 2011, the Center has advanced Human Justice, coining the formula “Human Rights + Human Development = Human Justice.” We believe that Human Justice, its philosophical and methodological approaches, are the most effective framework for achieving justice, safety and the wellbeing of communities. In 2012, we created the tag “from criminal justice to Human Justice” to describe our vision and how we address and operationalize decriminalization, decarceration and justice reform work by centering pathways for building capabilities and capacity of the neighborhoods hardest hit by policing and incarceration. This tag also describes our efforts in advocating for and creating the infrastructure for the reallocation of resources such that they become direct investment into the lives of people in those neighborhoods most impacted by criminalization.

On April 13, 2012, the Center held the inaugural Human Justice Award Gala, entitled From Criminal Justice to Human Justice, which featured guest speaker Harry Belafonte, Honorary Host Committee Chairs Danny Glover, Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) and George Gresham. Other guests included Gus Newport, Bob Moses, Tshaka Barrows and Indigo Bain. The Master of Ceremonies was Byronn Bain.