JHC Marks International Day of Peace with 17th Annual Human Rights Awards
Under the crisp autumn colours and within the historic ArtsHub Ortona venue, the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights (JHC) proudly commemorated the International Day of Peace on September 18, 2025, hosting its 17th Annual Human Rights Awards Ceremony.
The afternoon brought together community members, advocates, and leaders in human rights to celebrate the courage and commitment of this year’s honourees. Through powerful messages and heartfelt reflections, both honoured guests and award recipients reminded us of the urgent need to uphold and amplify the struggle for peace, inclusivity, diversity, and human rights in Alberta and beyond.
This year’s recipients shed light on critical issues facing our communities today, including:
Advancing disability rights and inclusivity;
Upholding the voices and experiences of migrants;
Supporting the 2SQTLGBIA+ community through dismantling systems of oppression; and,
Connecting local human rights struggles to the global movement for justice.
The event stood as both a celebration and a call to action—underscoring that the pursuit of human rights is a collective responsibility that transcends borders and generations.
JHC was privileged to welcome past board member and honoured patron, The Honourable Salma Lakhani, to the 2025 ceremony. Her Honour began the ceremony with a meaningful land acknowledgement and shared congratulatory reflections with this year’s award recipients.
“To our honorees, your amazing records of service remind us that the central promise of this home that we share, the blessings of peace, inclusion, equality, human rights, and the rule of law, must never be taken for granted. You are leading the way in making sure these rights are felt equally by all, and in safeguarding them for future generations. Through your tremendous compassion, determination and creativity, you are finding new ways to challenge assumptions and to lift up marginalized and underrepresented communities, often educating and motivating your fellow citizens along the way. You are fearless in your commitment to confronting racism and discrimination, to addressing inequities and to amplifying diverse voices in order to bring a fuller range of perspectives to the table. You are also giving a voice to those who do not have one and hopefully through your dedication and commitment, they will one day have a voice. You are the vanguard in fostering new and more inclusive ways of thinking about who we are as a society and your sustained leadership is helping to ensure every single one of us can contribute the fullest measure of our abilities and our identity as we chart a better path forward together. When we look at the state of the world around us today, the work that all of you, our honorees do, and the work of the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights, is more important now than ever before.”
19th Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, The Honourable Lieutenant Governor Salma Lakhani
JHC also welcomed His Worship, Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, a previous human rights champion award recipient, to bring remarks from the City of Edmonton:
“This ceremony really allows us to celebrate the people who are in the community doing some of the most challenging and difficult work in questioning our institutions. These questions must be raised… but it requires courage, it requires tenacity and the ability to raise voices that challenge our status quo, that challenge our way of thinking and really allows us to reflect whether we are bringing everyone along in this journey of building a great city.”
“This is essential work. As elected officials we have an important role to play. All of you…have a role to play, not only mobilizing community but also holding decision makers of institutions accountable and that’s the work many of the recipients have been doing, so thank you for your work in these areas....to build a society that we all desire to live in as human beings. As human beings, we want to be valid…we want to live in dignity, we want to live in a city and society that is safe for everyone. And we only do that when we lift each other up.”
His Worship, City of Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi
As they accepted their awards, recipients reflected on the struggles within their work and offered inspiring perspectives on how they continue to adapt and reshape their approaches. Their words highlighted the importance of helping those people connect with and understand human rights challenges through a lens of shared humanity and inclusivity.
“This work has been really hard this year, more than ever. I feel we’ve lost a lot of buy-in, a lot of community, and people are struggling. So when I found out that I’ve got this award…it lifted me back up, it made me realize why I do the work, and I just encourage that we have to keep going, we have to keep doing the work.”
Human Rights Champion award recipient, Inez Ashworth
“I’m incredibly touched to be seen this way and honoured by colleagues, clients and friends who have invited me into making their processes, organizations and events more accessible for all. At times, this work is incredibly complex and quite frankly, thankless. I received push back with timid uncertainty as people had never seen what a truly equitable, diverse and inclusive society could be. This work asks people to think differently, think critically and requires patience to hold space for competing values, access needs, reduced budgets, or lack of funding, and tight timeless. And to be frank, the divisive and fraught political landscape. So we must fight for continual diversity within all avenues of life and for equitable opportunities to participate to our fullest. And I too, am always learning and am never perfect. I aim to continually do what I can to show, even a little, even in small ways, how our world can be more diverse, inclusive, and allow all to belong in meaningful ways.”
Human Rights Champion award recipient, Brooke Leifso
“For a while I was doing a lot of social justice work, which was empowering Queer, Trans and Two-Spirit youth with Zine making workshops and crafts and that was incredible and great to do art with them. But I shifted my work about 5 years ago… to instead of empowering oppressed groups to working directly with oppressors. This pedagogy of the oppressor framework has brought me into rural towns, churches, policing organizations, to do this work in a different way…and it has been a transformative experience to work with these people.
And if there is one thing I can leave you with today, it is talk to somebody that you disagree with, with compassion, and heart, and ask yourself if you can feel for one second your shared humanity. And if you can do that once a little bit each day, I think you’d be left with a better world.”
Human Rights Champion award recipient, Brent Saccucci
Thanks to the support and sponsorship of Her Honour, Salma Lakhani, and her husband, Dr. Zaheer Lahkhani, JHC was excited to see longtime volunteer advocate and youth, Vipasna Nangal, be named as the third recipient of The Honourable Salma Lakhani Award for Leadership in Pluralism and Reconciliation.
“I have been serving as a Stride Advocate for the last few years [with JHC], and I fundamentally believe that the work that I was able to do through them really shaped my academic and professional trajectory, so for that, I’m truly, truly grateful. It feels like a circular journey. “
“In the pursuit of this work, it’s one thing to understand a little bit about the world.. But I think it’s a completely different thing to also understand yourself and your history. My parents are here tonight…and they came to this country with very little. Two children, a few suitcases and a lot of dreams. And I truly believe that living that experience with them and hearing their stories played a foundational role…whether it’s their stories of navigating systemic barriers in this country, or my grandparents’ stories of navigating casteism in India; I feel very proud to carry their stories with me and feel very honoured that my work can be an extension of them. “
Vipasna Nangal, The Honourable Salma Lakhani Award for Leadership in Pluralism and Reconciliation 2025 recipient
Congratulations to the 2025 award recipients, and thank you for all you are doing to cultivate a future that upholds peace and human rights for all!
See the Human Rights Awards photo gallery here! Please feel free to tag us on social media: @jhcentre
