Nigerian lawyer Yusuf Nurudeen has gained the 2026 International Bar Association (IBA) Pro Bono Award for his sustained efforts to bridge the justice hole by mobilising 141 volunteer legal professionals to supply free authorized companies to indigent and susceptible folks throughout 18 states.
Nurudeen, founding father of the Foundation for Public Interest Law and Development, also referred to as The Pro Bono Centre, obtained the worldwide honour on Thursday, 8 October, on the IBA’s annual awards breakfast in Copenhagen, Denmark.
His recognition locations Nigeria among the many nations whose authorized practitioners have been honoured for utilizing their skilled experience to advance entry to justice, notably for individuals who may in any other case be denied efficient authorized illustration due to their monetary circumstances.
The award was introduced by Babatunde Ajibade (SAN), Chairman of the IBA Section on Public and Professional Interest (SPPI) for 2025–2026.
It recognises legal professionals who present distinctive dedication to free authorized companies, develop modern approaches to professional bono observe and make a significant influence on people, communities or the justice system.
Nurudeen devoted the award to the 141 volunteer legal professionals working by means of his organisation, describing their collective efforts as the true pressure behind the popularity.
He stated the award was not a private achievement however a tribute to legal professionals who proceed to offer their time, information and sources with out anticipating monetary compensation.
Nurudeen’s recognition displays the philosophy behind the IBA’s annual Pro Bono Award: entry to justice shouldn’t depend upon wealth, and legal professionals have a duty to make use of their experience to guard individuals who can not afford their companies.
The worldwide physique says its Pro Bono Committee seeks to foster a tradition by which particular person legal professionals, legislation corporations and authorized organisations see free authorized help as very important to advancing justice, notably in jurisdictions the place authorized assist doesn’t adequately meet public wants.
The award has beforehand recognised legal professionals whose work combines direct authorized help with efforts to determine sustainable constructions for delivering justice.
Recent recipients embody Singapore’s Arfat Selvam, who gained the 2025 award after 17 years of management within the Law Society of Singapore’s professional bono initiatives; India’s Vineetha MG, honoured in 2024 for twenty years of service to underserved communities; and Argentina’s María Fernanda Mierez, the 2023 recipient, recognised for twenty years of professional bono work and initiatives to have interaction youthful legal professionals in authorized assist.
Their work illustrates the award’s broader objective: recognising not solely particular person acts of service but additionally sustained efforts to construct techniques that assist extra folks receive authorized help.
For Nurudeen, that dedication is rooted in private expertise and an understanding of how the absence of authorized illustration can change an individual’s life.
In his acceptance speech, he traced his ardour for entry to justice to his upbringing in Ikotun, Lagos, the place he grew to become the primary lawyer in his household.
He mirrored on how wrongful arrest and extended incarceration might have affected his household, saying his ambitions may need been lower quick if his father had suffered the destiny of two Nigerians whose circumstances he cited.
“If my father had been wrongfully arrested and incarcerated for thirteen years, like Igba Isaac, or eight years, like Pa Idowu Fashola, my dreams might have been cut short,” he stated.
He defined that the reflection underscored how an injustice in opposition to one individual can have an effect on a complete household, depriving youngsters of alternatives and disrupting dependents’ lives.
He recognized amongst these most uncovered to such injustices folks detained as a result of they can’t afford legal professionals, girls trapped in abusive marriages, youngsters whose upkeep rights go unenforced, and households liable to shedding their properties or livelihoods as a result of they can’t afford to pursue authorized cures
For such folks, formal recognition of their authorized rights might supply little safety in the event that they lack the means to implement them.
Nurudeen argued that the authorized occupation should confront this disparity moderately than let poverty decide who receives a defence, whose grievances are heard and who can search redress.
“Leaving these victims of our society’s inherent inequality helpless cannot be the promise of the legal profession,” he stated.
“Our undertaking must be to ensure the law remains an instrument of justice, not a privilege reserved for wealth, power, or influence.”
Through The Pro Bono Centre, he has led a community of volunteer legal professionals offering authorized help to individuals who may in any other case be unable to safe illustration.
The community’s presence in 18 states supplies a platform to increase help past particular person circumstances, bringing collectively practitioners prepared to make use of their skilled abilities within the public curiosity.
Nurudeen stated the award ought to renew the decision to motion, not conclude the work.
“I accept this award not as a declaration that our work is complete, but as a challenge to do more,” he stated.
“It renews my commitment to resisting the commodification of justice and ensuring that poverty does not become a sentence of helplessness.”
The different recipients recognised on the Copenhagen ceremony have been Charmaine Yap of Singapore, who obtained the IBA Outstanding Young Lawyer Award, and Zar Li Aye of Myanmar, honoured for excellent contribution by a authorized practitioner to human rights.
Yap was recognised for her skilled and educational excellence and her dedication to utilizing the legislation to advance justice for susceptible communities. Li Aye was honoured for defending the rights of Myanmar’s Chin indigenous group and advocating for marginalised teams.
The three awards, introduced on the SPPI breakfast through the IBA’s annual convention, highlighted totally different facets of the authorized occupation’s public-interest duties: increasing entry to justice, nurturing skilled excellence and defending human rights.
For Nurudeen and his community of volunteer legal professionals, nonetheless, the rapid problem stays turning the promise of authorized rights into sensible safety for individuals who lack the monetary means to defend them.
He stated professional bono service must be seen not merely as charity or an occasional skilled gesture, however as an important a part of a justice system dedicated to equity and equality earlier than the legislation.
He stated the popularity had strengthened his resolve to work in direction of a society the place nobody is simply too poor to be defended, too powerless to be heard or too marginalised to be protected.
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