Kate Eastman

Last updated

Kate Eastman AM SC (born 1966) is a leading Australian human rights lawyer and academic. [1] She was co-founder of the Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR) in 1992 and was for many years President. [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Eastman was educated at Loreto College, Normanhurst, before obtaining her Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Laws from the University of New South Wales (UNSW). She then studied international human rights law and private international law at University College London from where she graduated with distinction. She also holds a Diploma of International Human Rights Law from the European University Institute, Florence Italy. [3]

Career

Eastman has practised as a barrister in Sydney in the areas of human rights, discrimination, employment and administrative law since 1998. [4] She has been involved in some high-profile cases including The Tampa, David Hicks, transgender marriage, same sex marriage, the Royal Commission and headline grabbing workplace sexual harassment and discrimination matters. [5] In 2012 she was made senior counsel.

She actively contributes to raising awareness of human rights obligations within the legal profession. [6] [7] She is chair of the Australian Bar Association's Diversity and Inclusion Committee; a member of the Law Council of Australia's Business and Human Rights Working Group; and a member of the Law Council of Australia's National Human Rights Committee. [8]

In 1998 she was the only Australian NGO representative accredited to participate in the UN negotiations for the establishment of the International Criminal Court in Rome. [9]

Prior to her admission to the bar she worked as a solicitor at law firm Allen, Allen & Hemsley and as a senior legal officer at the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.

Eastman has lectured in human rights in Sydney at both the University of Technology and the University of Sydney, as well as at Monash University in Melbourne. [10] She has also undertaken some international teaching programs and has been a visiting fellow at the University of Western Sydney and senior fellow and member of the Postgraduate Advisory Committee at Monash University Law Faculty.

Eastman has received a Law Foundation Justice Award for her contribution to pro bono work and in 2017 was awarded Change Champion of the Year at the NSW Women's Lawyers Achievement Awards. [11] She is the winner of the 2019 Human Rights Law Award presented by the Australian Human Rights Commission. [12] She was appointed Senior Counsel Assisting the Disability Royal Commission in 2019. [13]

In the 2021 Queen's Birthday Honours Eastman was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for "significant service to the law, to human rights, and to professional organisations". [14]

Related Research Articles

<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.

Mary Kostakidis is an Australian journalist and political commentator. She is the former prime time weeknight SBS World News Australia presenter and was the face of SBS over two decades. Her journalism spans geopolitical issues, democracy and press freedom. Her commentary covers areas including the Middle East, national security, AUKUS, China and the failings of mainstream media. Her work is published by independent media including public policy journal Pearls and Irritations and has used Twitter/X extensively to contemporaneously report court proceedings in great detail, including the four week UK evidentiary Extradition hearing of Julian Assange and subsequent appeals.

<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.

The Faculty of Law and Justice of the University of New South Wales is a law school situated in Sydney, Australia. It is widely regarded as one of Australia's top law schools. The 2024 QS World University Rankings rank the UNSW Law Faculty 12th in the world, first for undergraduate law in Australia, 2nd overall in Australia and 3rd in the Asia-Pacific region, and the 2021 Times Higher Education subject rankings also rank it second in Australia, making it the top ranked law school in New South Wales according to both tables, as well as being the top undergraduate Law school in the country.

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.

The Human Rights Awards are a series of awards for achievements in the field of human rights in Australia, bestowed by the Australian Human Rights Commission at the Human Rights Day Ceremony in December in each year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Redfern Legal Centre</span> Community legal centre in New South Wales, Australia

Redfern Legal Centre (RLC) is an independent, non-profit community legal centre established in 1977 and located in the Sydney inner-city of Redfern, New South Wales. It is part of a network of four inner-Sydney region community legal centres, including the Inner City, Kingsford, and Marrickville Legal Centres. Redfern Legal Centre is a member of Community Legal Centres NSW, the state peak representative body for community legal centres in NSW and also Community Legal Centres Australia, the national peak representative body for community legal centres across Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virginia Bell (judge)</span> Australian judge

Virginia Margaret Bell is a former Justice of the High Court of Australia, the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy. She was sworn in on 3 February 2009, and retired on 28 February 2021.

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

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

Hilary Christiane Mary Charlesworth is an Australian international lawyer. She has been a Judge of the International Court of Justice since 5 November 2021, and is Harrison Moore Professor of Law and Melbourne Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne, and Distinguished Professor at the Australian National University.

Kingsford Legal Centre is an Australian not-for-profit legal centre. It is part of the network of Australian Community Legal Centres and also provides clinical legal education as part of the University of New South Wales Faculty of Law. It provides free advice to the residents of the Botany and Randwick local government areas, in subjects such as employment law, debts, victims compensation and domestic violence, as well as providing a statewide service for discrimination matters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Broderick</span> Australian lawyer

Elizabeth Broderick is an Australian lawyer, who was the Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner for over eight years from 2007 to 2015 and has been a United Nations special rapporteur for Discrimination against Women and Girls since 2017. She is a former partner and head of legal technology at Ashurst Australia, a global commercial law firm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kate Jenkins</span> Australian human rights commissioner and sport administrator

Kate Michelle Jenkins is a human rights lawyer and commissioner and sports administrator. She was Commissioner at the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission before becoming the Sex Discrimination Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission from 2016 to 2023. Jenkins was appointed the chair of the Australian Sports Commission in May 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Megan Davis</span> Australian human rights lawyer and Aboriginal activist

Megan Jane Davis is an Aboriginal Australian activist and international human rights lawyer. She was the first Indigenous Australian to sit on a United Nations body, and was Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Davis is Pro Vice-Chancellor, Indigenous, and Balnaves Chair in Constitutional Law at the University of New South Wales. She is especially known for her work on the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary-Anne Williams</span> Australian professor at UNSW founded Artificial Intelligence programs

Mary-Anne Williams FTSE is the Michael J Crouch Chair for Innovation at the University of New South Wales in Sydney Australia (UNSW) based in the UNSW Business School.

Patricia Audrey Anderson is an Australian human rights advocate and health administrator. An Alyawarre woman from the Northern Territory, she is well known internationally as a social justice advocate, advocating for improved health, educational, and protection outcomes for Indigenous Australian children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Curthoys</span> Australian historian and academic

Ann Curthoys, is an Australian historian and academic.

Anna Shelley Brown is a lawyer and advocate, particularly in the area of LGBTIQ rights. After working for the Human Rights Law Centre for around seven years, in December 2018 she was appointed chief executive of new LGBTI advocacy organisation Equality Australia

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terri Janke</span> Australian lawyer

Terri Janke is an Indigenous Australian lawyer of Wuthathi/Meriam heritage. She is considered a leading international authority on Indigenous cultural and intellectual property (ICIP), and is the Solicitor Director of Terri Janke and Company.

Rosemary Kayess is an Australian human rights lawyer, disability rights activist, researcher and academic. She is a senior research fellow at the University of New South Wales Faculty of Law and the chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, having contributed to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2004. Kayess has also been the director of several non-governmental organizations throughout her career, advocating for disability rights and the implementation of the UN convention in Australia and abroad. She was awarded the Australian Human Rights Medal in 2019 for her contributions to human rights in Australia.

References

  1. "Eastman, Kate, (SC) (1966–)". Trove. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  2. "Australian Lawyers for Human Rights". Australian Lawyers for Human Rights. 20 March 2018. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  3. "Eastman, Kate". The Australian Women's Register. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  4. "Kate Eastman SC". 6 St James Hall Chambers. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  5. Convery, Stephanie (11 September 2015). "The Matildas' pay dispute could spark real change". ABC News. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  6. "2017 is the year for human rights – Law and Justice". Law and Justice. 6 March 2017. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  7. "Eastman, Kate – "Sex Discrimination in the Legal Profession" [2004] UNSWLawJl 48; (2004) 27(3) University of New South Wales Law Journal 866". www.austlii.edu.au. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  8. "Kate Eastman SC | Kaldor Centre". www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  9. "Kate Eastman SC". Australian Women Lawyers as Active Citizens. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  10. "Kate Eastman SC". Faculty of Law, Monash University. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  11. "NSW Women Lawyers Achievement Awards 2017 – 11th August 2017, Sydney". Women Lawyers Association of NSW. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  12. "Kate Eastman SC, Winner of the 2019 Human Rights Law Award - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  13. Kate Eastman SC on ABC The Drum , retrieved 3 February 2021
  14. "Ms Katherine Louise Eastman". It's An Honour. Retrieved 13 June 2021.