2009 Judges
Daniel Barenboim
Daniel Barenboim is a famed pianist, conductor and the first Israeli to be given honorary Palestinian citizenship for his efforts to bridge Israel and Palestine. Barenboim is known for his groundbreaking West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, established in 1999 with the late Palestinian scholar Edward Said. Each summer the orchestra assembles young Arab and Israeli musicians for musical training and a wider education in the lives of their peers from opposing communities. When accepting the 2002 Principe de Asturias Prize for the orchestra, Barenboim said the universal language of music links with the continuous dialogue that we have with young people; a powerful example of the ability of art to change lives.
Ela Bhatt
Ela Bhatt is the founder of India's Self-Employed Women's Association and co-founder of The Elders. A lawyer by training, Dr. Bhatt is a respected leader in the international labour, women and micro-finance movements and has won several national and international awards. Her book We are Poor but So Many: The Story of Self-Employed Women in India has been translated into Gujarati, Urdu, Hindi and is currently being translated into French and Tamil. In 2007 she helped launch The Elders, a group of eminent global leaders including Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan and Jimmy Carter, which was convened to help solve intractable global problems.
Tony Elliott
Tony Elliott launched Time Out in 1968 during a summer vacation from university, with 70 an aunt gave him for his 21st birthday. He never finished his university course. Today, the listing magazine publishes in more than 20 cities worldwide, from Tel Aviv to Shanghai. Time Out Group also has extensive guidebook and website divisions. He is on the board of directors of Human Rights Watch; a trustee of the Roundhouse, a performing arts centre in London; a trustee of Somerset House, a London cultural centre; and a governor of the British Film Institute.
Razia Iqbal
The BBC News arts correspondent, Razia Iqbal covers the frequent collision of the arts with politics and human rights. On the recent Babylon exhibition at the British Museum, Iqbal noted the curatorial criticism in the exhibition of the failure of coalition troops to stop the looting of Baghdads national museum after the 2003 invasion. Iqbal has also written on the role that the arts should play in economic recovery after the recent financial crisis.
Sacha Jafri
Sacha Jafri is a celebrated young painter who was educated at the Ruskin, Oxford University and is considered one of the most exciting British painters on the contemporary art scene. His work has been shown around the world and is the subject of a ten year retrospective that will tour 26 museums in 16 countries over the next three years. The New York Times, BBC news and The Financial Times describe him as "The one to watch!"
Cont Mhlanga
The Zimbabwean playwright Cont Mhlanga has been an outspoken critic of President Robert Mugabe's regime. Based in Bulawayo, South Zimbabwe, Mhlanga has been writing and staging political theatre for over 25 years. His satirical plays have made him a household name. In 2008 he won the inaugural Freedom to Create Prize for his play "The Good President", which presents a fictionalised account of a ruthless dictator that closely mirrored events in his community. "It was never just art for arts sake," he says, "it was always utility art.
Geoffrey Robertson QC
Geoffrey Robertson QC is a leading human rights lawyer, academic, author and broadcaster. He serves as a Master of the Bench at the Middle Temple and a recorder and visiting professor at Queen Mary, University of London. Robertson has acted for the defence in several high-profile trials involving free expression and human rights. He received threats for representing Salman Rushdie; was involved in the prosecution of Augusto Pinochet, Chiles military dictatory in the 1970s; and served on the UNs special tribunal for Sierra Leone until 2007. In 2008 he was appointed to the UN's Internal Justice Council as one of three distinguished jurist members.
Peter Stern
Peter Stern is a New York-based lawyer whose general practice includes a specialty with respect to art-related matters. He has provided general counseling to more than 100 galleries and dealers, 70 artists and estates, as well as many collectors, auction houses and insurance companies. Mr Stern has also been active with a number of not-for-profit institutions and has been a member of the Board of Directors of Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts since 1995 and Chairman since 1999.
Photograph Jeff Koons
Ana Tzarev
A Croatian-born painter, Ana Tzarev worked as a designer and entrepreneur before she began painting at the age of 56. Drawing on her global travels, Tzarev depicts people whom she has called the "dispossessed", whether because of political upheaval or poverty. Writing about her art, the critic Edward Lucie-Smith said that its qualities were "the generosity of its response to new experiences". Ana Tzarev also supports numerous projects that use the arts to change lives in developing countries.
