Chris Sidoti

Last updated

Christopher Dominic Sidoti
Commissioner of the Australian Human Rights Commission
In office
1995–2000
NicknameChris

Christopher 'Chris' Dominic Sidoti (born 1951) is an Australian expert on international human rights law, a lawyer and advocate. He is a former Human Rights Commissioner, and a former commissioner of the Australian Law Reform Commission, and has held a range of other distinguished posts. [1]

Career

Chris Sidoti was the Foundation Secretary of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (since renamed the Australian Human Rights Commission) in 1987. [2] In November 2016, Sidoti gave a speech for the Commission reflecting on thirty years of achievements and lessons. [3]

Between 1995 and 2000 Sidoti served as Australian Human Rights Commissioner, and between 1992 - 1995 was a commissioner of the Australian Law Reform Commission. [4] Sidoti also played a role in the establishment of the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions. [2] In 2008, Sidoti was appointed to the position of chairman of the New South Wales Casino Control Authority and subsequently the Casino, Liquor and Gaming Authority. [5] In 2007-2008, Chris Sidoti held the independent position of chair of the Northern Ireland Bill of Rights Forum. [6] [7]

He formerly held a position as National Secretary of the now dismantled Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace. Chris Sidoti was appointed to the board of trustees of the UN Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights in 2011. [4]

In non-governmental roles, Sidoti served as Director of the International Service for Human Rights from 2003 to 2007 and later served on the board of the organization. He has also worked for the Human Rights Council of Australia and the Australian Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace. [8] Sidoti is also a drafting committee member and signatory of the Yogyakarta Principles plus 10, on the application of international human rights law in relation to sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics. [9]

Chris Sidoti also holds a number of academic positions. He serves as adjunct professor at the University of Western Sydney, Griffith University, University of the Sunshine Coast, and the Australian Catholic University. He is a Fellow of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law at Monash University, and an Affiliate at the Sydney Centre for International Law at the University of Sydney. [6] [8]

In the aftermath of the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, he co-founded the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M) in March 2021 alongside two UN officials, Marzuki Darusman and Yanghee Lee. [10]

On 19 June 2024 Sidoti, as a member of the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, presented its findings into abuses committed on both sides since Israel’s war on Gaza began. Answering claims by Benjamin Netanyahu that the Israel Defense Forces is the “most moral army in the world,” Sidoti declared, citing the report, “the only conclusion you can draw is that the Israeli army is one of the most criminal armies in the world”. [11] [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crimes against humanity</span> Concept in international law

Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as foreign nationals. Together with war crimes, genocide, and the crime of aggression, crimes against humanity are one of the core crimes of international criminal law, and like other crimes against international law have no temporal or jurisdictional limitations on prosecution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Kirby (judge)</span> Australian jurist and academic

Michael Donald Kirby is an Australian jurist and academic who is a former Justice of the High Court of Australia, serving from 1996 to 2009. He has remained active in retirement; in May 2013 he was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to lead an inquiry into human rights abuses in North Korea, which reported in February 2014.

Human rights in Australia have largely been developed by the democratically elected Australian Parliament through laws in specific contexts and safeguarded by such institutions as the independent judiciary and the High Court, which implement common law, the Australian Constitution, and various other laws of Australia and its states and territories. Australia also has an independent statutory human rights body, the Australian Human Rights Commission, which investigates and conciliates complaints, and more generally promotes human rights through education, discussion and reporting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gillian Triggs</span> Australian legal scholar

Gillian Doreen Triggs is an Australian academic specialising in public international law. In 2019, she was appointed by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres as Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations. In this capacity, she will serve as the Assistant High Commissioner for Protection in the team of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial. A number of jurisdictions claim that it is done for security reasons. Many countries claim to use administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism or rebellion, to control illegal immigration, or to otherwise protect the ruling regime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Navi Pillay</span> South African lawyer, judge and human rights activist

Navanethem "Navi" Pillay is a South African jurist who served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014. A South African of Indian Tamil origin, Pillay was the first non-white woman judge of the High Court of South Africa. She has also served as a judge of the International Criminal Court and President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Her four-year term as High Commissioner for Human Rights began on 1 September 2008 and was extended an additional two years in 2012. In September 2014 Prince Zeid bin Ra'ad succeeded her in her position as High Commissioner for Human Rights. In April 2015, Pillay became the 16th Commissioner of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty. She is also one of the 25 leading figures on the Information and Democracy Commission launched by Reporters Without Borders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Christian Lobby</span> Conservative Christian advocacy organisation

The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) is a conservative right-wing Christian advocacy organisation based in Canberra.

Elizabeth Andreas Evatt, an eminent Australian reformist lawyer and jurist who sat on numerous national and international tribunals and commissions, was the first Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia, the first female judge of an Australian federal court, and the first Australian to be elected to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

Marcus Richard Einfeld is an Australian former judge of the Federal Court of Australia and was the inaugural president of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. He was convicted of perjury and perverting the course of justice and served two years in prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melissa Parke</span> Australian politician (born 1966)

Melissa Parke is a former Australian Labor Party politician and UN human rights lawyer, who served as Member for the federal electoral Division of Fremantle in the Australian House of Representatives from 2007 to 2016. In 2013 Parke was appointed by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as Minister for International Development and served in that capacity until Labor lost government later that year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Schabas</span> Canadian academic (born 1950)

William Anthony Schabas, OC is a Canadian academic specialising in international criminal and human rights law. He is professor of international law at Middlesex University in the United Kingdom, professor of international human law and human rights at Leiden University in the Netherlands, and an internationally respected expert on human rights law, genocide and the death penalty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yogyakarta Principles</span> Document about human rights in the areas of sexual orientation and gender identity

The Yogyakarta Principles is a document about human rights in the areas of sexual orientation and gender identity that was published as the outcome of an international meeting of human rights groups in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in November 2006. The principles were supplemented and expanded in 2017 to include new grounds of gender expression and sex characteristics and a number of new principles. However, the Principles have never been accepted by the United Nations (UN) and the attempt to make gender identity and sexual orientation new categories of non-discrimination has been repeatedly rejected by the General Assembly, the UN Human Rights Council and other UN bodies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christine Chinkin</span>

Christine Mary Chinkin is a Professor of International Law and founding Director of the Centre for Women, Peace and Security at the London School of Economics and Political Science and the William W. Cook Global Law Professor at the University of Michigan Law School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Vadiveloo</span> Australian lawyer

David Selvarajah Vadiveloo is an Australian lawyer, education reformer and cultural safety consultant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Ruddock</span> Australian politician

Philip Maxwell Ruddock is an Australian politician and the current mayor of Hornsby Shire. He is a Vice Chair of the Global Panel Foundation Australasia.

The right to sexuality incorporates the right to express one's sexuality and to be free from discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. Although it is equally applicable to heterosexuality, it also encompasses human rights of people of diverse sexual orientations, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, and the protection of those rights. The right to sexuality and freedom from discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation is based on the universality of human rights and the inalienable nature of rights belonging to every person by virtue of being human.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marzuki Darusman</span> Indonesian lawyer

Marzuki Darusman is an Indonesian lawyer and human rights campaigner who served as the Attorney General of Indonesia from 1999 to 2001. He currently serves as the chairman of an UN Human Rights Council mission on Myanmar since July 2017. He is the Director-General of the Human Rights Resource Centre for ASEAN.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morgan Carpenter</span> Intersex activist

Morgan Carpenter is a bioethicist, intersex activist and researcher. In 2013, he created an intersex flag, and became president of Intersex Human Rights Australia. He is now executive director. Following enactment of legislative protections for people with innate variations of sex characteristics in the Australian Capital Territory, Carpenter is a member of the Variations in Sex Characteristics Restricted Medical Treatment Assessment Board.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yanghee Lee</span> South Korean expert for international human rights

Yanghee Lee is a South Korean developmental psychologist and professor at Sungkyunkwan University. She is most noted for her work in international human rights organisations. Lee is highly recognized nationally, regionally, and internationally for her expertise in human rights. She has published numerous articles and books on human rights and children’s rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosalind Croucher</span> Australian lawyer and academic

Rosalind Frances Croucher is an Australian lawyer and academic who is the current President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, in office since July 2017. She was previously President of the Australian Law Reform Commission from December 2009 until July 2017, having served as a full-time commissioner since 2007.

References

  1. ↑ "Interview with Chris Sidoti". www.ucl.ac.uk. 24 October 2016. Archived from the original on 21 December 2017. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  2. 1 2 "Human Rights Commissioner's term ends". Australian Human Rights Commission . 14 August 2000. Archived from the original on 21 December 2017. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  3. ↑ "RightsTalk: Reflective – Key achievements and lessons learned from 30 years of human rights in Australia". Australian Human Rights Commission . 2 November 2016. Archived from the original on 4 May 2017. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  4. 1 2 "The Human Rights Council still to come". Archived from the original on 21 October 2017. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  5. ↑ "Human touch for gambling body - National - smh.com.au". www.smh.com.au. 10 January 2008. Archived from the original on 16 April 2008. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  6. 1 2 "Are national human rights institutions always the answer? The Asia Pacific experience - Chris Sidoti". www.ucl.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 21 December 2017. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  7. ↑ "Guest Contribution: Harvey on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland – Human Rights in Ireland". humanrights.ie. Archived from the original on 21 December 2017. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  8. 1 2 Office, Publications. "Human Rights lecture series". sydney.edu.au. Archived from the original on 17 April 2017. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  9. ↑ "Yogyakarta Principles plus 10". Archived from the original on 1 December 2017.
  10. ↑ "Launch of Special Advisory Council for Myanmar". Human Rights & Public Liberties. 4 March 2021. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
  11. ↑ La comisión internacional de investigación de la ONU dice que el Ejército israelí 'es uno de los más criminales del mundo', Público, 19 June 2024
  12. ↑ Ejército israelí “uno de los más criminales del mundo”, Deutsche Welle, 19 June 2024
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.