Gillian Triggs reflects on Australia’s human rights record

An Australian government delegation faced tough questioning by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council in Geneva earlier this month, and more than 100 countries made recommendations about Australia’s human rights record.

President of the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) Gillian Triggs will discuss how the UN’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) could be used to better ensure human rights in Australia, when she speaks at UNSW’s Australian Human Rights Centre on Thursday 26 November.

Director for Human Rights and Disability at the Centre, Rosemary Kayess, says the UPR made recommendations about asylum seekers in Australian detention centres and about other serious human rights concerns such as the treatment of people with disability.

“These recommendations focused on the prohibition of forced sterilisation, ending violence against people with disability, including the high prevalence against women and children with disability, and addressing the indefinite detention of people with disability in the criminal justice system,” says Ms Kayess, who attended the UPR in Geneva.

Emeritus Professor Triggs, a former barrister and legal academic, was Dean of the Faculty of Law and Challis Professor of International Law at the University of Sydney from 2007 to 2012 and prior to that was Director of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law.

She has combined an academic career with international commercial legal practice and has advised the Australian and other governments and international organisations on international legal and trade disputes.

What: Australia as a Global Human Rights Citizen: Reflections, recommendations and opportunities with Gillian Triggs

When: Thursday, 26 November 2015, 6:00pm to 7:30pm

Where: Ground Floor, UNSW Law building, Kensington Campus

RSVP: Online registration is essential for this free event.