Principal speaker
Michael Kirby AC CMG
The United Nations Human Rights Council appointed Justice Kirby to lead a landmark inquiry into human rights abuses in North Korea. The Report of the Commission of Inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was released in February 2014. Justice Kirby will explain the history behind the peculiar character of DPRK and the challenges of unification the Korean peninsula faces. As well as explaining the methodology used by the Commission of Inquiry which was different to previous Commission of Inquiries and used public hearings and encouraged ordinary Korean citizens (many of them escapees from North Korea) to tell their stories.
Justice Kirby was Australia’s longest serving judge when he retired from the High Court of Australia in 2009. He is renowned for his commitment to social justice and for inspirational judgments over a remarkable 35 years on three courts and the Arbitration Commission. Mr Kirby currently holds the appointments of Editor-in-Chief The Laws of Australia and Commissioner of the UNAIDS/Lancet Commission on defeating AIDS and advancing Global Health. Since his judicial retirement, Mr Kirby continues to be active in international human rights and in 2010 received the Gruber Prize for Justice in recognition of his work. In 1983 he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) for his services to Law. In 1991, he was awarded the Human Rights Medal along with receiving Australia's highest civil honour when he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC). He has also served on a number of high-profile international boards – from the UN Special Representative Human Rights in Cambodia to the World Health Organisation’s Global Commission on AIDS.
Prior to the seminar Justice Kirby will be signing the biography Michael Kirby: Paradoxes & Principles by Professor AJ Brown, School of Government and International Relations, Griffith University (available from the Gallery of Modern Art bookstore).
- Thursday 1 May, 2014
-Cinema A, Gallery of Modern Art, Stanley Place, South Bank
- Book signing from 5:00pm, Seminar from 6:00-7:00pm (refreshments from 5:30pm)
Places are limited, please book early to avoid disappointment. Please RSVP to Natasha Vary by Thursday 24 April 2014 on telephone 07 3735 5322 or email events-gai@griffith.edu.au
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RSVP
RSVP on or before Thursday 24 April 2014 , by email events-gai@griffith.edu.au , or by phone 37355322