Michael Kirby (judge)

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The commission of inquiry presided over by Kirby recommended that North Korean leadership be prosecuted for human rights violations. Michael Kirby, Chairman of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the DPRK.jpg
The commission of inquiry presided over by Kirby recommended that North Korean leadership be prosecuted for human rights violations.

In May 2013, the United Nations Human Rights Council appointed Kirby to lead a commission of inquiry into human rights abuses in North Korea, with Sonja Biserko and Marzuki Darusman. [32] [33] The report is dated 7 February 2014. It identifies "[s]ystematic, widespread and gross human rights violations" by a "totalitarian state", including "unspeakable atrocities" in the political prison camps. It makes many recommendations for internal reform and international action, including prosecution of the North Korean leadership in the International Criminal Court or before an ad hoc international tribunal. [34] North Korea refused all co-operation with the inquiry and, just before the report was launched, issued a statement claiming that it was based upon "faked" material. [35]

As the report was being finalised, on 20 January 2014 Kirby wrote to North Korea's Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un, informing him that he would be advising the United Nations to formally refer the situation in North Korea to the International Criminal Court, where Kim could be tried for his personal culpability as head of state and leader of the military, but proposing that the commission come to Pyongyang to discuss the issues with the North Korean government. [36] [37] At a press conference to launch the report, on 17 February 2014, Kirby said that there were "many parallels" between the evidence he had heard and crimes committed by the Nazis and their allies in the Second World War. [38] On 22 April 2014 the official news agency of North Korea, KCNA, claimed that the "fabrications" are meant to "undermine the ideology and social system of the DPRK". [39] The KCNA also criticized Kirby for being gay: "it is ridiculous for such gay [ sic ] to sponsor dealing with others' human rights issue". [40] [41]

Kirby remained involved in advocacy on issues of human rights in North Korea and the abduction of Japanese citizens, participating in symposia organised by the Japanese government in Geneva (September 2014) with a UN Human Rights Council Panel and in Tokyo (December 2015). [42] In May 2017, [43] he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, "in recognition of his contribution to promoting understanding of the situation of Human Rights in North Korea in the international society including the issue of the abductions of Japanese nationals". [42] The honour was presented by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe and Kirby received the additional honour of an audience with Akihito, the Emperor of Japan, at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. [44] Kirby described the awarding of the honour to himself and former United Nations special rapporteur Marzuki Darusman [45] as "a clear signal that the Japanese Government has not abandoned its determination to pursue the crime against humanity involved in the abductions in the international community and other crimes revealed in our report." [44]

In January 2015, one of the key witnesses to Kirby's inquiry, Shin Dong Hyuk, admitted that he had given false testimony. Having sworn that he had spent his childhood entirely in the notorious Camp 14, he changed his story to say that he had been transferred at the age of six to the nearby Camp 18. [46] He said that he had changed his story after seeing his father (whom he had thought to be dead) on television. Shin apologised but gave few details. [47]

Public life

Michael Kirby was among the founders [48] of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, an organisation which played a prominent part in the 1999 republic referendum.

Kirby has a reputation as an eloquent and powerful orator, having given a vast number of speeches over his career on a diverse range of topics. [49]

The annual Michael Kirby Lecture and Dinner has been conducted by the Faculty of Law and Justice, Southern Cross University, since 2007. [50]

Kirby is a fellow of the Hastings Center, an independent bioethics research institution in the United States. In 2006, he was elected an Honorary Bencher of the Inner Temple in London. In the same year, the Australian Academy of the Humanities elected him an Honorary Fellow. [51]

In July 2009, Kirby accepted a position as adjunct professor in law at the University of Tasmania Faculty of Law. He is also the (founding) Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Law, Information & Science , which is published by that faculty; a position he has held since 1981. [52]

Since 2010, Kirby has been one of the 11 members of the Eminent Persons Group set up to advise on reform of the Commonwealth of Nations. [53]

In 2011, Kirby, suggested that "There is nothing so powerful in the world as an idea whose time has come, and animal protection is just such an idea", becoming a patron of Voiceless, an animal protection institute. [54]

Kirby is an avid supporter of the arts. He has appeared in the University of Queensland Law Revue twice since 2004. In May 2007, he appeared in Melbourne alongside hip-hop impresario Elf Tranzporter at the launch of Victorian Arts Law Week, performing a rap of W. B. Yeats's poetry. [55] [56] In August 2014 he featured in the Sydney Law Revue's finale performance, performing a dancing and singing number to Christina Aguilera's "Dirrty", retitled 'Kirby'.[ citation needed ]

Personal life

Kirby has been openly gay since around 1984. He has lived since 1969 with Johan van Vloten, who migrated to Australia from the Netherlands in 1963, and in 1999 Kirby listed him as his long-term partner in Who's Who in Australia . Van Vloten helped people living with HIV and Kirby became involved in the issue both within Australia and internationally. [57] Kirby has often spoken publicly in support of gay rights. [58] While President of the International Commission of Jurists he encouraged that organisation to give more consideration to human sexuality as an aspect of human rights, [59] and as an Anglican he has expressed disappointment at his church's stance on gay rights. [60] In 2002, at the Sydney Gay Games VI, Kirby was the keynote speaker at the opening ceremony. "The movement for equality is unstoppable. Its message will eventually reach the four corners of the world," he told a crowd of 35,000. [61] [62] In 2006, he attended the International Conference on LGBT Human Rights in Montreal, presiding over the Asia-Pacific Plenary.

Kirby is religious, describing himself as a "Protestant Anglican Christian" and criticising clerical opposition to homosexuality: "I don't want any old gent in frocks to take my religion from me and to me it is still an important aspect of my life". [63] In November 2007, he accused the Anglican and Catholic archbishops of Sydney, Peter Jensen and George Pell respectively, of hindering the acceptance of gay people in Australian society, stating that homophobia was "reinforced even to this day by religious instruction, and it has to be said, religious instruction from the two archbishops of Sydney". [64] Kirby also expressed disappointment in his "minority of one" status among his High Court of Australia colleagues, and conceded that "some of the justices perhaps have less liberal views than I have". [64]

Kirby was selected by readers of samesame.com.au as one of the 25 most influential gay or lesbian Australians in every year that this list was published, from 2007 to 2010. [65] [66]

Kirby and van Vloten married on 11 February 2019, the 50th anniversary of their first meeting. [67] [68]

Family

Kirby's father, Donald, was the only child of Alma Caroline (Norma) Grey, a single working mother of English—Irish descent. Norma became pregnant at 15 with Donald Kirby [2] while in a relationship with a then-17-year-old Victor Kirby, a Catholic who had arrived after the Great Famine. Norma's parents were John Emmanuel Gray, an English brick- and boiler- maker and Annie Lyons. Annie's father, Harry Lyons, had emigrated from Dublin to Sydney in the 1850s, following the Great Famine and her mother's name was Mary.

His mother, Jean Langmore Knowles, was born in Berwick, Victoria to William Knowles, an Ulster Scot from Ballymena, and Margaret, as one of four daughters. [2] Jean was a graduate of Sydney Girls High School, obtaining a Leaving Certificate, a rarity for a woman at that time, and worked in numerous paid jobs by virtue of her own successes and ability. [2] Donald Kirby, aged 16, and Jean Knowles first met at Saint Martin's Anglican Church, Kensington. Donald attended Sydney Technical School in Ultimo, and afterwards worked as a general assistant, then tool and machinery salesman, at a hardware firm. [2] The two became engaged on Jean's 21st birthday and were married in March 1937, a month after Donald turned 21; their first home was in Bloomfield Street, South Coogee. [2]

Michael Kirby's brothers have also been lawyers: David was a judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, retiring in 2011; Donald was a solicitor until retiring in 2006. [69] Sister Diana was a nurse in the Colorectal Unit of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, retiring in 2011. [70]

Honours

As a Supreme Court and High Court Justice, Kirby is styled "The Honourable" for life, according to Australian protocol.

In August 2008, Kirby was presented with the inaugural Australian Privacy Medal by Senator John Faulkner and Karen Curtis, the Australian Privacy Commissioner. [75]

A new Law School building at Macquarie University, to open in 2022, will be named the Michael Kirby Building. [76]

Honorary degrees

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References

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  80. USQ (2017) Graduations continue with inspiring talks
Michael Kirby
The Hon Michael D. Kirby AC CMG (cropped).jpg
Justice of the High Court of Australia
In office
6 February 1996 2 February 2009
External videos
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Michael Kirby calls for freedom from religion, Matter Of Fact With Stan Grant, ABC News
Legal offices
New title Chairman of the Australian Law Reform Commission
1975–1984
Succeeded by
Preceded by Judge of the Federal Court of Australia
1983–1984
Succeeded by
Preceded by President of the New South Wales Court of Appeal
1984–1996
Succeeded by
Preceded by Puisne Justice of the High Court of Australia
1996–2009
Succeeded by
Academic offices
Preceded by
Percy Partridge
Chancellor of Macquarie University
1984–1993
Succeeded by