The Robert H. Jackson Center will open the International Humanitarian Law Dialogs with a program featuring the presentation of the Joshua Heintz Award for Humanitarian Achievement and a Conversation with Zainab Hawa Bangura, former United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict.

The free event will be held at 7 p.m. Sunday in the Cappa Theatre of the Jackson Center, 305 E. Fourth St., Jamestown.

Given annually, the Joshua Heintz Award for Humanitarian Achievement recognizes individuals who demonstrates compassion, vision, and dedication in pursuit of international humanitarian justice. This year’s award honors Allyson Caison and Christina Cowger. Caison and Cowger are founding members of the grassroots network of human rights advocates, North Carolina Stop Torture Now. The organization worked to end America’s Rendition, Detention and Interrogation program and led an effort to stop flights from North Carolina that were used to transport suspects for torture in secret prisons in other countries.

After the award presentation, Dr. Zainab Bangura will be interviewed by Gregory Peterson, Phillips Lytle partner and co-founder of the Jackson Center. Over the past two decades, Bangura, the 2017 winner of the Heintz Award, has worked in the pursuit of justice for victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity, both in her native Sierra Leone and around the world.

The public is also welcome to the IHLD seminars and lectures being held on the grounds of Chautauqua Institution on Monday and Tuesday. Attendance is free of charge. For more information, visit www.roberthjackson.org/article/international-humanitarian-law-dialogues.

Donors for the opening program include Blackstone-NEY Ultrasonics, LaBella Associates and the Whitney R. Harris Lectureship Endowment Fund at the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation.