The Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ), which provides free legal support in defense of free speech and women’s rights in more than 40 countries, announced today the 2025 honorees for The Albies — the organization’s annual awards ceremony dedicated to celebrating global human rights defenders.
Launched in 2022 by CFJ co-founders Amal and George Clooney, The Albies are named after South African anti-apartheid champion Justice Albie Sachs. This year, the awards make their London debut, taking over the city’s iconic Natural History Museum on the evening of Oct. 3.
This year’s honorees are Gambian women’s and girls’ rights activist Fatou Baldeh; Guatemalan journalist Jose Rubén Zamora; celebrated American newspaper editor Marty Baron of Spotlight fame; and global women and girls champion Melinda French Gates.
Ford Foundation president Darren Walker will receive The Albies’ lifetime achievement award for his decades of service to philanthropic and advocacy causes all over the world.
“At The Albies, the sacrifices and courageous commitments to justice and human rights take center stage,” said Amal and George Clooney, Co-Founders of CFJ. “This is a celebration of the individuals whose lives and careers have come to embody those values that form the cornerstone of our foundation’s global work.”
This year’s honorees each represent a core part of CFJ’s work on behalf of women and journalists:
- Fatou Baldeh is one of the world’s leading voices on the dangers of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), which impacts 230 million women globally. A survivor herself, she founded Women in Liberation and Leadership (WILL) and was instrumental in advocating against a 2024 effort to overturn The Gambia’s ban on the practice.
- Jose Rubén Zamora is one of Guatemala’s most respected journalists, known for investigating corruption for over 30 years. After his newspaper published critical reporting about Guatemala’s president, he was arrested and then charged with and convicted of money laundering. CFJ’s TrialWatch monitored his trial, grading it an F due to a series of egregious violations. His sentence was overturned in 2023, but he remains in prison awaiting retrial. Both the UN and the Organization of American States have declared Zamora’s present detention to be arbitrary.
- Marty Baron’s legacy as executive editor of The Boston Globe and The Washington Post exemplifies the value of a free press. Under his leadership, the Globe exposed the Catholic Church’s cover-up of sexual abuse, while the Post reported on widespread digital surveillance of American citizens.
- Melinda French Gates has championed global efforts for women’s health and gender equality for over 25 years, driven by the desire to unlock a healthier, more prosperous, and equal future for women and girls worldwide. After setting the direction of the world’s largest philanthropy for more than two decades at the Gates Foundation, she now leads Pivotal — an organization that works to accelerate the pace of progress and advance women’s power and influence in the U.S. and around the world. She helped launch a campaign to end child marriage in partnership with CFJ and the Obama Foundation in 2023.
- As president of the Ford Foundation, Darren Walker‘s generosity and determination have touched countless communities during a decades-long career that has ranged from building affordable housing in Harlem to funding pioneering global social justice initiatives. An innovative leader, he created the first billion-dollar social bond in U.S. capital markets to stabilize nonprofit organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic and led a $1 billion grantmaking effort to strengthen institutions and amplify their impact.
Past honorees include luminaries such as labor leader Dolores Huerta, Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, Congolese doctor and human rights advocate Dr. Denis Mukwege, Yazidi activist Nadia Murad, and the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression.
For more information about the Albies and this year’s honorees, visit www.cfj.org/the-albies.
ABOUT THE CLOONEY FOUNDATION FOR JUSTICE
The Clooney Foundation for Justice wages justice by providing free legal aid in defense of free speech and women’s rights in over 40 countries. Its work has led to dozens of journalists being set free and thousands of women receiving free legal support to defend their rights.
ABOUT THE CLOONEY FOUNDATION FOR JUSTICE’S TRIALWATCH INITIATIVE
TrialWatch provides free legal aid to journalists who are unfairly imprisoned to secure their release and uphold freedom of speech.
ABOUT THE CLOONEY FOUNDATION FOR JUSTICE’S WAGING JUSTICE FOR WOMEN INITIATIVE
Waging Justice for Women provides free legal aid to women and girls to defend their rights, including their right to be free from discrimination, child marriage, and violence.