Rob: Well students today I have with me Hugh de Kretser who is the Executive Director of
the Human Rights Law Centre, thanks for joining us Hugh.
Hugh: My pleasure.
Rob: Well Hugh, what is the Human Rights Law Centre and how did you get the gig?
Hugh: Well the Human Rights Law Centre is relatively new organisation we were formed
in 2006 and we exist to protect and promote human rights in Australia and in Australian
activities overseas and unlike most Community Legal Centres that do a high volume of small
matters we do a low volume of large matters focussed on systemic change so we litigate
in the higher courts and combine that litigation legal action with advocacy to try and change
the law to change the policies that have systemic impact for the benefit of vulnerable Australians.
Rob: Simple question, why are human rights so important?
Hugh: Human rights are the basic fundamental guarantees around issues like freedom, equality,
respect and dignity so they protect everyone in the world, obviously some people who are
more vulnerable need greater protection from human rights quarantees and typically those
guarantees are split into civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights,
so examples of those in civil/political space is freedom of speech, freedom on peaceful
assembly, freedom from discrimination, the right to life in economic, social, cultural
rights, the right to housing, health, education, the right to food.
Rob: Ok so often when people think of human rights they think of international tribunals,
Geoffrey Robinson, Amal Clooney, they think of a whole range of war crimes and atrocities,
why do we need a human rights law centre here in Victoria?.
Hugh: Sure, on a spectrum of human rights violations in the world you’ve got the Congo,
Syria, North Korea they’re obviously the most acute world problems, but we still have
problems here in Australia.
Australia has a pretty good track record on protecting human rights but that doesn’t
apply equally to everyone.
You look across Australia’s history and the issues like the stolen generation, the
white Australia policy, entrenched discrimination against women and migrants these are the kind
of examples where Australia has failed in terms of protecting human rights, in the modern
context we’ve still got really extreme examples of human rights violations, particularly for
indigenous Australians, for asylum seekers, those locked up in offshore detention centres
in Nauru and Manus Island but also the ongoing discrimination against women, family violence,
disability discrimination, marriage equality is an issue for lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex
and trans gender Australians, so these are the kind of issues we work on as an Australian
human rights law centre.
Rob: And what sort of skills do you need to be a human rights lawyer?
Hugh: I think a passion for justice as a starting point, a lot of law students start their studies
with that real passion for changing the world, for improving the world, and some of us are
fortunate enough to carry that into a career, and there’s lots of ways you can do that
but for me, for the past eleven years, it’s been working in community legal centres and
prior to that doing pro bono work and volunteering and at university I was obviously interested
in human rights law, international law and I’ve been able to forge a career out of
that but a determination for change, human skills, so working in community legal centres
can be frustrating – I used to work in a corporate law firm and in one sense it’s
almost clinical because your clients are well educated, they understand the law, but you
work in community legal centres you’re dealing with intense, personal issues – trauma,
tragedy – so it’s not just the law it’s also about those social skills and being able
to work with people to build that trust and rapport because their revealing really personal
details to you and you’re working in journey with them to try and get justice for them,
so you have to patience, you have to have a long term vision, and you have to have a
passion for justice and you have to be a good lawyer.
Rob: Ok to wrap it up if you have one piece of advice for students watching this thinking
about their career path, thinking about maybe going to corporate sector, thinking perhaps
about the human rights area, what would that one piece of advice be?
Hugh: Get involved, so whether or not you forge a career out of it or whether you do
it as a volunteer exercise on the side of your other career, the key to it is getting
involved, building your experience, building your networks, making the change using your
education, your privilege for the benefit of those that are vulnerable and everyone
does that Australia would be a better place.
Rob: Well there you go students, there’s the advice, get involved, you really have
a duty to make Australia a better place.