JUST WAYS: Australian social advocacy stories Peter Norden, A.O. Vice Chancellor’s Fellow Melbourne Law School University of Melbourne

Human Rights Advocacy Stories  Edited by D.R. Hurwitz University of Virginia School of Law & M.L. Satterthwaite New York University School of Law Foundation Press, 2009

Some cross-cutting issues:  The role of the lawyer and the law in human rights struggles  The dynamic interplay of formal and informal modes of protest  The relationship between domestic and international law  The role of the law and legal institutions in crafting solutions that provide truth & justice

Some selected Australian case studies  Police use of ‘deadly force”, Victoria 1990’s  Threatened deportation of East Timorese from Australia, following independence of Timor L  An Australian on “death row” in Singapore  Ronald Ryan: buried in an unmarked grave

Police Use of “deadly force”  Walsh Street shootings/Russell St bombing  Death of Gary Abdallah: May 1989  11 th death from police shootings in 2 yrs.  Quotation from statement at funeral: …  Six police charged with his murder  Role of Community Legal Centres  Seven more deaths Jan – May 1994  Project Beacon: police retraining

Australian East Timorese community  1975 invasion of territory by Indonesia  Late 1980’s: further civil conflict  1999 Indonesia relinquished control  Christmas 2001 threatened deportation  Richmond solidarity action  Role of Legal Aid workers  Role of Peter McGauren, MLS graduate

Australian on death row in Singapore  Mrs Kim Nguyen and sons Van & Khoa  Convicted of trafficking heroin  Defence: Lex Lasry and Julian McMahon  The Richmond vigil service and protest  Intervention of two Popes!  Capital punishment and moral teaching…

Ryan: 40 years in an unmarked grave  George Melville: oyster shop in Collins Street  1855 Act to Regulate Execution of Criminals  3 rd February 1967: last man hanged in Aust.  Buried in an unmarked grave: Pentridge  Public tours: 350,000 visitors  Licence for Exhumation, December 2007  What about Ned Kelly?

CONCLUDING REMARKS….  Role of the legal profession in advocacy  Who is “the client”?  Who gives the mandate?  How to discover the passion?  Collaboration in defence of human rights  Implications for legal education  Formation for professional practice