A new book by former Secretary to the UN Commission on Human Rights John Pace, details the entire record of the Commission and the Human Rights Council since the inception of UN work in human rights in 1946.
Former High Court Justice the Hon. Michael Kirby AC CMG and Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous UNSW and Professor of Law Megan Davis will join the author in conversation about his new book, moderated by Director of the Australian Human Rights Institute Professor Justine Nolan.
This event is co-hosted by the Australian Human Rights Institute and the International Law Association Australia.
Michael Kirby is a highly distinguished Australian jurist and legal scholar who served as a Justice of the High Court of Australia from 1996 to 2009. He has been recognised internationally for his contributions to human rights and social justice and is affectionately known as the ‘Great Dissenter’ for his well-reasoned, independent, and sometimes controversial opinions.
He was a member of the World Health Organisation’s Global Commission on AIDS and since retiring from the High Court, has continued his work in various international roles, including as a Commissioner on the UNDP Global Commission on HIV and the Law, and as a member of the UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights. He has been awarded the Australian Human Rights Medal, was named a laureate of the UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education and received the Gruber Justice Prize for his work on sexual orientation discrimination and international human rights law, including laws relating to privacy and HIV/AIDS. He is also a public speaker, commentator, and author.
Megan Davis is a Professor of Law, holds the Balnaves Chair in Constitutional Law and is Pro Vice-Chancellor Society at UNSW Sydney. She is a globally recognised expert on Indigenous peoples rights and was a member of the Prime Minister’s Referendum Council and the Prime Minister’s Expert Panel on the Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the Constitution. She designed the deliberative dialogues and chaired the Referendum Council’s sub-committee for the First Nations regional dialogues and the First Nations National Constitutional Convention in 2017. Since 2017 she has continued her legal work and community legal education via the Indigenous Law Centre UNSW Sydney. She was an expert member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (2011–2016) and is currently an expert member and Chair of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous peoples (2017–2022). In 2022 she was a co-recipient of the Sydney Peace Prize for the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
Justine Nolan is the Director of the Australian Human Rights Institute and a Professor in the Faculty of Law & Justice at UNSW Sydney. She has published widely on business and human rights and her latest book, Addressing Modern Slavery (2019) (with M. Boersma) examines how consumers, business and government are both part of the problem and the solution in curbing modern slavery in global supply chains. She advises companies, NGOs and governments on these issues and is a member of the Australian Government’s Expert Advisory Body on Modern Slavery. Justine has practiced as a private sector and international human rights lawyer. She is the Executive Editor of the Australian Journal of Human Rights, a member of the Editorial Board of the Business and Human Rights Journal and is a Visiting Scholar at NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.
In the course of a career spanning more than 50 years in the field of human rights, John Pace has worked in a wide range of human rights activities at the international and regional level.
He has headed several sectors of the human rights programme and was Secretary to the Commission on Human Rights (1978 to 1994) and Coordinator of the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights (1991 to 1993).
He has a long association with UNSW, where he has taught and headed the Australian Centre for Human Rights in the early 2000s. He is currently Senior Visiting Fellow in the Faculty of Law and Justice and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Diplomacy Training Programme.
His work, The UN Commission on Human Rights: ‘A Very Great Enterprise’, was published by OUP in 2020.
