In the wake of the imposition of emergency rule in Pakistan, on November 14, 2007, the Harvard Law School Association decided to award its highest honour, the Medal of Freedom, to Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, following the military crackdown the previous week. He becomes the first Pakistani to be presented with such honour.
The Harvard Law School Medal of Freedom is given to selected personalities for their contributions to freedom, justice, and equality. Only two other people have been awarded this honor. The first was Charles Hamilton Houston, an African American lawyer and NAACP Litigation Director who helped play a role in dismantling the Jim Crow laws and helped train future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall. Former South African President Nelson Mandela is the second.
As Iftikhar Chaudhry was under house arrest at that time, the school held a grand ceremony to award the medal hoping that its recipient will soon be released and allowed to attend. The same statement announcing the award identified Chaudhry as Pakistan’s chief justice and not as a deposed or former judge.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry formally received the Harvard Law School Medal of Freedom during his visit to the United States in November, 2008.
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