Human Rights 2017 Speaker Profiles and Abstracts
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Andrew Denton, Award winning performer, producer and writer
Andrew Denton is an award winning writer, performer and producer. His TV programs include Enough Rope, The Chaser decides, Hungry Beast and The Gruen Transfer. He pioneered documentaries on difficult subjects done in a different way including The Year of the Patronising Bastard, about disability, and Angels & Demons about mental illness. His 17-part podcast series about voluntary euthanasia, Better Off Dead, released in 2016, went to the top if the iTunes charts.
June Oscar, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner
June Oscar AO is a proud Bunuba woman from the remote town of Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia’s Kimberly region. She is a strong advocate for Indigenous Australian languages, social justice, women’s issues, and has worked tirelessly to reduce Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).
June has begun her five-year term as Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner on April 3, 2017.
June has held a raft of influential positions including Deputy Director of the Kimberley Land Council, chair of the Kimberley Language Resource Centre and the Kimberley Interpreting Service and Chief Investigator with WA’s Lililwan Project addressing FASD .
She was appointed to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (1990) and was a winner of the 100 Women of Influence 2013 in the Social Enterprise and Not For Profit category. In 2015 June received the Menzies School of Health Research Medallion for her work with FASD.
John is originally from Edinburgh Scotland and has a Scots Law Degree, (LLB) graduating from the University of Strathclyde in 1979. John came to Australia in 1980 and thereafter graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Melbourne in 1985. John served his Articled Clerkship working with the NT Crown Prosecution team in the Morling Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Chamberlain convictions. Following his admission in 1987, John worked as a Crown Prosecutor with the NT Director of Public Prosecutions for 5 years.Thereafter he worked as Solicitor in Charge of the North Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service from 1992-1997.
John enrolled at the Private Bar in 1997 and has practiced as a Barrister since then. John has practiced as an advocate his entire legal career. In the main he practices in Criminal Law, conducting Jury Trials, Court of Criminal Appeal matters and Court of Appeal matters. He has also appeared as lead counsel in the High Court of Australia. John also practices in Administrative Law, Human Rights Law, Refugee matters, Indigenous matters, Coronial Inquests, Disciplinary proceedings and Licensing matters
Kate Colvin, Manager – Policy and Communication, Council to Homeless Persons
Kate is responsible for the policy work and advocacy campaigns of Council to Homeless Persons, the peak body of Victoria’s homelessness sector. She’s passionate about community engagement in social change and has developed a number of national campaigns on homelessness and housing affordability including Australians for Affordable Housing, and the Vote Home campaign that was active prior to the 2016 federal election.
Abstract:
Homelessness is a growing national problem that is a consequence of the rising cost of renting and Australia’s increasingly restrictive social security system and deregulated labor market. Kate will talk about the extent of homelessness and what is needed to solve it, and also reflect on the impact of reforms that further marginalise people who are homeless, like the City of Melbourne’s proposed laws to ban camping in central Melbourne.
Kevin Myles, Southeast Regional Field Director, National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
A Maurice Blackburn Visiting Activist
Kevin Myles serves as the Southeast Regional Field Director for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the nation's oldest and largest Civil Rights Organization. In this role, Kevin provides training, guidance, and assistance to more than 600 active units throughout the States of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. During his tenure on the National Staff, Kevin has also served as the Mid-Western Regional Field Director, and as the Interim National Field Director. As a member of the National Field Operations Team, Kevin has played an integral role in the development and execution of several National campaigns for justice, including the campaigns for Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, National and State level ‘Stand Your Ground’ Legislative reform efforts, the March on Washington, and the 1,002 mile America’s Journey for Justice march for Voting Rights, to name a few.
Prior to joining the National Staff, Kevin served as the President of the Kansas State Conference of the NAACP where he helped shape and advance efforts to pass one of the Nation’s only standing Anti-Racial Profiling laws and led coordinated advocacy efforts to reform the State’s Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare systems.
Professor Jean Allain, Monash University Faculty of Law
Prof Jean Allain is a Professor of Law in the Monash University Law Faculty and an Associate of the Castan Centre. He is the leading legal scholar on issues of human trafficking and modern slavery and Special Adviser to Anti-Slavery International, the world's oldest international human rights organisation. Prof Allain is also Professor of Public International Law with the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation (WISE) at the University of Hull, UK. Prof Allain is also Extraordinary Professor, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, South Africa; and Visiting Professor, Beijing Normal University (2017-2020).
Abstract:
Eradicating the scourge of modern slavery is one of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, and Australia is currently considering introducing a Modern Slavery Act to address it. Prof. Allain will explore the dimensions of modern slavery and what needs to be done to stop it.
Jan Breckenridge has worked for 30 years to develop appropriately targeted policies and effective front-line practice responses to violence against women (VAW) and children. Jan has extensive research experience and is regularly commissioned by State and Commonwealth governments to undertake practice informed and evaluation research. She has an extensive publication record including a number of high impact Government Reports. In 2014 she was appointed as Content Specialist to the Commonwealth Government to advise on the development of the National Research Agenda on Violence Against Women. Her current areas of research include: Sexual Assault of males in the Australian Defence Forces; ‘Safe at Home’ programs for women and children who leave a violent relationship and want to stay in the family home; Best practice responses to individuals who have experienced institutional Childhood Sexual Abuse; and, Gendered violence and work – engaging with workplaces to develop a response framework and training managers to better respond to disclosures of gendered violence by employees and provide flexible work arrangements to help them maintain their employment. These are a small selection of projects but do exemplify a common theme of focusing on developing innovative responses which are designed to better the lives of those affected by different manifestations of gendered violence.
Abstract:
This presentation distinguishes the particular support and service needs of victims of institutional child sexual abuse and how these needs may differ from victims of non-institutional child sexual abuse. In addition, it examines whether factors such as context, duration and relationship to the perpetrator, influence the nature and extent of longer-term effects on survivors.Specific comment will be made in relation to services and support provided to three select population groups:
· people who have experienced child sexual abuse in an institutional context
· Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
· people with disability.
The first group is of primary interest to the Royal Commission, while the latter two groups have been included because of their increased vulnerability to child sexual abuse compared with the general population, their long history of institutionalisation carried out as accepted government policy, and their continued over-representation in various forms of institutional care. However it is also the case that victims could potentially be at the intersection of all three population groups.
Dr Kate Seear is a Senior Lecturer in Law at Monash University. She holds an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Fellowship. Kate is a practising lawyer, the Academic Director of Springvale Monash Legal Service, and an Adjunct Research Fellow in the Social Studies of Addiction Concepts research program in the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University, Australia. She has written extensively on the intersections between alcohol and other drug use, drug law and policy, stigma and discrimination.
Abstract:
Over the last few months, a major inquiry into drug law reform has been unfolding in the state of Victoria. Victoria has an unparallelled opportunity to reconsider the nature and scope of its drug laws, and to follow the lead of a number of countries around the world, including Portugal and Canada, in reforming its drug laws. But which laws need reform? And on what basis? In this presentation, I examine the human rights case for drug law reform. Drawing upon international developments in human rights law, the Victorian Charter and more, I argue – following former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan – that drug laws needed to be grounded in a ‘deep concern for health and human rights’. I also explore the case for a move away from the “war on (people who use) drugs” in light of growing concerns about the relationships between law, policy, stigma and discrimination. Drawing upon research I have conducted in Australia and Canada, among other things, I argue that there is a very strong case for reforming drug laws, especially where governments have the opportunity to alleviate stigma, promote health, prevent death and preserve life.