Hundreds filled Room 175 of the University’s School of Law on Friday to mourn and remember their recently lost friend Svitlana Kravchenko. Friends, family, colleagues and students walked in to the sounds of live violinists, with pictures of Kravchenko playing across a giant screen.
Ten speakers from seven different countries spoke, with some Skyping in from their respective homes and offices. They shared stories, both serious and funny, of their experiences with her.
Kravchenko died two weeks ago from an unexpected heart attack, much to the shock of the entire law school community.
Introducing the speakers was law school dean Michael Moffitt.
“It is with profound honor that we can be here together,” Moffitt said. “Today — even collectively — we can only begin to describe this person and what she did for us.”
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Antonio Benjamin shared the tale of watching his old friend John Bonine in one of their first interactions. Kravchenko had been speaking at a conference, and Bonine was flustered.
“He was quite nervous, and was making a strange noise,” Benjamin said. “I couldn’t understand that. I looked at my other friends that were sitting next to me, and I said, ‘Explain to me, what’s going on here?
“And this friend that John knows well, she looks at me and she whispered ‘It’s love, my friend.”
Kravchenko and Bonine were married a few years later, and became to be known as one of the most powerful duos in environmental law and human rights. Together they wrote textbooks and founded the combination of environmental and human rights law.

Among the other speakers were Bern Johnson, the executive director of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, Fe Sanchis-Moreno, a United Nations Attorney based in Spain and Samantha Kakuru, an attorney and former student of Kravchenko.
Johnson worked all over the world with Kravchenko, on a number of environmental projects.
“We (at ELAW) had the privilege of working with Svitlana for 17 years,” Johnson said. “Everywhere she brought the same warmth, style, optimism and joy. And fearlessness.”
Johnson also remembers Kravchenko as a strong woman, one who would not let the disparaging aspects of her life and and work change her.
“Svitlana survived cancer, Chernobyl, the horrible nuclear disaster that made parts of Ukraine uninhabitable to this date. She lived through what she called the Soviet times, when Ukraine was governed by force,” Johnson said. “These three things would make almost anyone cynical. But not Svitlana. She stayed optimistic.”
Moreno started her portion of her speech with a song that she once heard Kravchenko singing, that she too had been singing.
“I said, ‘Do you know Spanish?’ and she said, “No, this is a Russian song,’” Moreno said as laughter rang throughout the room. “After that, it became a duet.”
Kakuru, a recent graduate from the LL.M. program that Kravchenko had been the director of,  spoke to her presence as a teacher.
“It’s incredible how we grew so close in such a short amount of time,” Kakuru said. “But that was who she was. She made us feel so comfortable.”
The tribute ended with the violinists playing as people exited the room to the reception just outside. Many swarmed to Bonine and the rest of her family to offer their best wishes.
Although her family did not speak, the tribute was full of heartfelt and meaningful speeches from those close to her.
“The greatest lesson I will take from Svitlana is her urging us to move toward beauty,” Johnson said. “She had a joyful spirit and a warm and caring embrace.”