The Juan E. Méndez Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America honors the leadership and legacy of Juan E. Méndez, a champion of justice who has devoted his life to the defense of human rights.
Méndez is the former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and current Professor of Human Rights Law at American University. The award recognizes an outstanding book of non-fiction, including graphic works, published in English on human rights, democracy and social justice in contemporary Latin America. Méndez’s papers are housed at Duke University Libraries’ Human Rights Archive, one of the largest collections of human rights materials at any American university. The papers document Méndez’s work as the UN Special Advisor for the Prevention of Genocide and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, as well as his work with the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ).
The award is co-sponsored by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) at Duke University and is given in conjunction with the Human Rights Archive at Duke’s Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Eligibility
Scholarly and popular books, including non-fiction graphic works, are eligible, either edited or authored. To be eligible, books must meet the following criteria:
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An original, non-fiction book related to issues of human rights, the rule of law, social and/or economic justice, and democracy, as they are broadly understood, in contemporary Latin America. Books should pertain to events that took place in roughly the past 50 years.
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Published in the English language by a commercial, university, or non-profit publishing concern. Books written originally in other languages and translated into English are eligible. Self-published books are not eligible.
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Published in the two years before the date of the award, including the year of the award. In other words, books published in 2023 and 2024 are eligible for the prize awarded in 2025. Books published prior to 2022 are not eligible. Advanced copies and/or PDFs of books that are scheduled to be published after the submission deadline will be accepted.
Submission Guidelines
The deadline for entries is November 30, 2025.
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There is no entry form. Publishers, authors or readers may send nominations to Robin Kirk at rights@duke.edu. Please use the subject line Méndez Book Award.
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The submission should contain a short description of the book and publishing details; no supporting materials or reviews are necessary.
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Copies should be mailed to:
Méndez Book Award
Duke Human Rights Center @ the Franklin Humanities Institute
114 S. Buchanan Blvd.
Durham, NC 27708 -
If books are short-listed, we will request copies for all judges.
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For books due to be published in 2025 but after the entry deadline, nominators may send a pre-publication copy or PDF copy, indicating the publication date.
Judges are drawn from Duke University as well as journalists, scholars, writers and others who have worked in human rights in Latin America.
2025 Juan E. Méndez Book Award Winner
Ieva Jusionyte is the winner of the 2025 Juan E. Méndez Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America.
Her book, Exit Wounds: How America's Guns Fuel Violence Across the Border, examines an often-overlooked but powerful fuel for drug-related violence: the trafficking of guns from the United States into Mexico.
Judges
Robin Kirk (Chair)
Faculty Co-Chair of the Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute, Kirk is a senior lecturer in the Department of Cultural Anthropology and directs the Human Rights Certificate. Kirk has written five books, including More Terrible Than Death: Massacres, Drugs and America’s War in Colombia (Public Affairs) and The Monkey’s Paw: New Chronicles from Peru (University of Massachusetts Press) as well as a young-adult fantasy series.
James Chappel
The Hunt Assistant Professor of History at Duke University, Chappel studies modern European history. In Catholic Modern: The Challenge of Totalitarianism and the Remaking of the Church, Chappel traces the way that Catholics came to adopt a language of ‘human rights,’ and explores the limitations and opportunities of religious human rights language.
Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno
An activist, writer, and lawyer, McFarland is the author of There Are No Dead Here: A Story of Murder and Denial in Colombia, a Méndez award winner. She is currently Senior Legal Adviser to Human Rights Watch. As the former executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, Maria was at the helm of the leading organization in the US fighting to end the war on drugs. Previously, Maria held several positions at Human Rights Watch, including as co-director of its US Program.
Deborah Jakubs
Deborah Jakubs established the Human Rights Archive at Duke University in 2006 during her tenure as Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs (2005-2022). An historian of modern Latin America, she traces the roots of her concern for human rights in the region to her initial research in Argentina in the late 1970s. She has been a member of the Review Board of the Modern Endangered Archives Program, the steering committee for the FOIArchive, and a consultant to libraries in Chile and in Turkey.