Company: World Vision Canada, Mississauga, ON, Canada
Company Description: World Vision is a Christian relief, development and advocacy organization that is dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice, in nearly 100 countries.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Woman of the Year - Government or Non-Profit

Nomination Title: Sara Austin, Director of the President's Office

Describe for the judges the activities and accomplishments of the nominated woman since the beginning of July last year (up to 525 words):

Sara Austin is an agent for change in her role as an executive in the non-profit sector. She is a tireless advocate for the rights of children around the world and a dedicated volunteer with children’s aid societies at home in Canada. She is a wife, a mother and a mentor. And she richly deserves to be named Woman of the Year for 2014.

That’s because earlier this year, Sara stood up in front of the United Nations Headquarters in New York and testified as a landmark new international law was ratified. This law, known as the 3rd Optional Protocol (OP3) to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child will have a direct impact on the lives of children around the world. The OP3 has already been ratified by 11 countries with 45 more indicating their support. And Sara created it herself.

Sara single-handedly drafted this powerful law while doing graduate studies at the University of Oxford. The idea was born from Sara’s experiences working with children affected by extreme poverty and exploitation who had no avenue to seek justice and whose rights were sadly neglected. The OP3 now puts the power back into the hands of children to hold their governments accountable for the promises made to them.

The OP3 will markedly change the lives of the world’s most vulnerable children – from child soldiers in Uganda to garment workers in Bangladesh to sex trafficking victims in Afghanistan. It’s a powerful tool for the world’s least powerful people.

She fought for eight years, lobbying governments around the world and organizing a grassroots campaign in order to realize her dream of having the OP3 ratified by the United Nations.

During that time, Sara married, became a mom to now four-year-old Felix, and she and her husband were both diagnosed with cancer. She could have given up, taken a break, passed on the work or waited until the timing was better. She did none of those things. She kept working, travelling, speaking out and fighting to end the suffering of children around the world.

She has won a major battle. Children can now file a complaint to the UN directly, or be represented by an organization like World Vision (Sara is a Director in the President’s Office at World Vision Canada). The UN must then investigate, and can order the government to provide children with the protection and care they rightly deserve.

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Provide a brief biography of the nominated woman (up to 125 words):

Sara Austin is a lifelong advocate for the rights of children and a world-class champion of good governance. She drafted the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child for a Communications Procedure and led a global campaign leading to its adoption by the UN General Assembly. This groundbreaking legislation allows children or their advocates to file complaints with the UN and hold governments accountable for rights violations. Sara is Director of the President’s Office of World Vision Canada. She is Vice Chair of the York Region Children’s Aid Society Board. Sara holds an MSt/LLM with Distinction in International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford and an Honours BA in International Development and Women’s Studies from Dalhousie University.