Newark, NJ, January 3, 2007 - Karima Bennoune, Associate Professor of Law at Rutgers School of Law-Newark and one of the very few scholars of Arab and American descent in the American legal academy, has been selected by the Association of American Law Schools Section on Minority Groups as the winner of the 2006 Derrick A. Bell, Jr. Award. The award, to be presented on Jan. 5 at the AALS Annual Meeting, honors a junior faculty member who, through activism, mentoring, colleagueship, teaching and scholarship, has made an extraordinary contribution to legal education, the legal system or social justice. The award is named in honor of Professor Derrick Bell, the first tenured African-American on the Harvard Law School faculty (now at New York University Law School).
Through her teaching, scholarship, and advocacy, Karima Bennoune has advanced understanding of issues of concern to Arabs and Muslims and furthered the inclusion of more diverse voices in international justice forums, said Dean Stuart L. Deutsch. Karimas selection for the Derrick Bell Award is a testament to the significance of her academic, research, and activist pursuits and to the talent and diversity of the Rutgers-Newark law faculty.
Professor Bennoune graduated from a joint program in law and Middle Eastern and North African studies at the University of Michigan, earning a J.D. cum laude from the law school and an M.A. from the Rackham Graduate School. Her articles have appeared in the American Journal of International Law, the European Journal of International Law, the Michigan Journal of International Law, and the U.C. Davis Journal of International Law & Policy and have been widely cited, including by the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women. Her next article, entitled Secularism and Human Rights: A Contextual Analysis of Headscarves, Religious Expression and Womens Equality Under International Law is forthcoming in the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law. Bennoune has also engaged in extensive international public speaking on human rights, womens rights, and international law and terrorism.
Professor Bennoune is on the board of directors of Amnesty International USA and the board of trustees of the Center for Constitutional Rights. She has been a member of the executive council of the American Society of International Law, and a consultant on human rights issues for the Soros Foundation and for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Her human rights field missions have included Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Lebanon, Pakistan, South Korea, southern Thailand, and Tunisia.
Professor Bennoune teaches International Law and a Just World Order, International Human Rights, International Law & Terrorism, and International Womens Human Rights.