2013 M.C. Bassiouni Justice Award winner

Mirna D. Goransky 

Mirna D. Goransky was granted the 2013 M.C. Bassiouni Justice Award in Florence on 20 May 2013 in recognition of (a) her distinguished service to national criminal justice for core international crimes committed in Argentina in the period from 1976 to 1983; (b) the courage, persistence, strength and professionalism that she has shown as a prosecutor of the Argentine Special Unit to Investigate Human Rights Crimes; (c) her outstanding management ability as a criminal justice leader, having set an example within her country and internationally by the way she has nurtured and protected unity, inclusiveness, quality control and productivity in her prosecution teams; and (d) the manner in which she has excelled as a female career prosecutor in a society of rampant machismo – with distinct solidarity, empathy, fairness and warmth characterizing her professional service.

Mirna D. Goransky is Deputy General Prosecutor of the Office of the National Attorney General in Argentina. Since she joined the Office in 1996, she has, inter alia, served as Prosecutor of the Special Unit to Investigate Human Rights Crimes during the 1976-83 Dictatorship, in charge of the trials against those accused of crimes against humanity in the Navy School of Mechanics (Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada, ESMA) and Operation Condor (the co-ordination to persecute political dissidents of Southern Cone military governments) (2006-2012); Prosecutor of the Criminal Policy Unit, leading programmes such as Community Relations and reorganisation of the Ministerio Público (1996-1999); and Prosecutor of the first-ever decentralised prosecutor’s office in the City of Buenos Aires (1999). She has been a consultant to the drafting of legislation to reform the criminal and criminal procedure codes in Guatemala for the Center for the Advancement of the Rule of Law, CREA/USAID (1996); a main researcher of the Project to Reform the Judiciary in Argentina, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (1993-1994); a researcher of the Project to Reform the National System of Criminal Procedure in Argentina, Secretary of Justice, National Government of Argentina (1989); an expert consultant on judicial systems working on the implementation of the new criminal procedure system in Argentina, United Nations Development Program/International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (1987-1988); co-ordinator of the Legislation Commission, National Commission against Narco-Traffic and Drug Abuse, Argentina (1986-1987); and main adviser to the Secretary, Dr. Jaime Malamud Goti, National State Secretariat, Argentina (1985-1987).

Mrs. Goransky holds a Law Degree from the Law School of the University of Buenos Aires (1976-1982), where she was an Associate Professor teaching courses on criminal law and procedure and constitutional rights (1987-1997). She served as an independent researcher on a comparative study on the organisation and functioning of prosecutors’ offices in Argentina, Chile and United States at the Justice Studies Center of the Americas (2001-2003). She has authored the book Hacia un Ministerio Público eficaz, eficiente y democrático (Towards an Effective, Efficient and Democratic Prosecution, Editores del Puerto, Buenos Aires, 2010), and has published more than 30 articles on criminal law and procedure, human rights and judiciary reform. She has given numerous lectures in various countries in Latin America on these issues, and served as member of the editorial board of Nueva Doctrina Penal (New Criminal Jurisprudence, a law journal on criminal law and procedure) (1995-2003) and as Editor-in-Chief of Pena y Estado (Punishment and State, also a journal on criminal law and society) (1997-2002). She is a founding member of the Instituto de Estudios Comparados en Ciencias Penales y Sociales (Institute of Comparative Studies on Criminal and Social Sciences) and a founding member and member of the Board of the Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (Association for Civil Rights). She is married and the mother of Tomàs (21) and Martina (19).

The 2013 Award Committee consisted of Professor M.C. Bassiouni, Justice Richard J. Goldstone, Mr. Arne Willy Dahl (Judge Advocate General, Norway), Mr. Wolfgang Kaleck (General Secretary, European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights), Mr. Alf Butenschøn Skre (Secretary), and Professor Morten Bergsmo (Chair). Its decision was made by consensus.  

You find a statement by Mirna D. Goransky here.