Advisory board

Professor Philip Alston
Professor of Law, New York University School of Law

Professor Alston, an Australian, is one of the world's leading human rights experts. He is a prolific author and has written leading texts in the areas of international human rights law, the UN and Human rights, the EU and human rights, Bills of Rights and children's rights. He has held a number of prestigious academic posts at Harvard, Fletcher and Michigan in the US, at the ANU, at the EUI in Florence and is currently Professor of Law at NYU Law School. He was also chair of the UN's Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Committee from 1991 to 1998; the senior consultant in the preparation of the UN's Human Development Report 2000; and Director of a major UNICEF-sponsored study on the Impact of the Convention on the Rights of the Child 1990-2000.

Mr Patrick Dodson
Founding Chair, Lingiari Foundation Inc

Patrick is widely recognised as the "Father of the Reconciliation movement" in Australia, he has shown national leadership in the search for the resolution of two centuries of vision that has hindered the relationship between Australia's Aboriginal people and their non-Aboriginal brothers and sisters.  The Lingiari Foundation is Australia's first national Indigenous-controlled, independent advocacy, research and development organisation, founded in 2001.

The Hon Elizabeth Evatt AC
Judge; World Bank Administrative Tribunal; Honorary Visiting Professor, University of New South Wales Law School; and Chair of Board for Public Interest Advocacy Centre, Sydney

Elizabeth Evatt has been a member of the UN Human Rights Committee (monitoring body established under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights), Rapporteur and Vice-Chair.  She has been a Commissioner (part time) of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, President of the Australian Law Reform Commission, Deputy President of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, Member and Chair of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and Chief Judge of the Family Court of Australia.

Professor Claudio Grossman
Dean, Law School, Washington College of Law, The American University and the Raymond Geraldson Scholar of International and Humanitarian Law

Professor Grossman is the author of numerous publications regarding international law and human rights. He recently completed an eight-year term on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights during which time he chaired the organization twice. He also served as the Commission's Special Rapporteur on Women's Rights and Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Populations. Grossman has received numerous awards for his work with human rights and international law, including the René Cassin Award from B'nai B'rith International in Chile and the Harry LeRoy Jones Award from the Washington Foreign Law Society.

During his tenure at WCL, Professor Grossman has initiated and supported numerous programs and projects promoting international and humanitarian law. He is a co-creator of the Center for Human Rights that is housed at WCL. Professor Grossman also established the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in the summer of 2000. This academy is a summer institute that offers courses in human rights and humanitarian law and is the first such academy to offer classes in both English and Spanish. He has been an ardent supporter of WCL's Women and the Law Program which offers the only LL.M. in Gender Studies. He has also provided administrative and financial support to the War Crimes Research Office also housed at WCL.

Because of his interest in, and dedication to the public interest, Professor Grossman was named Outstanding Dean of the Year by the National Association of Public Interest Law in October 2000. In 2001, The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) named him as the recipient of the Chapultepec Grand Prize 2002. Professor Grossman has a law degree from the University of Chile and a PhD from the University of Amsterdam Law School.

The Hon Judge Felicity Hampel
County Court of Victoria

Judge Felicity Hampel SC is a judge of the Victorian County Court.  She was a barrister for 24 years, specialising in criminal, administrative and human rights law.  She is an internationally experienced teacher of advocacy and expert witness training.  She is a board member and senior teacher with the Australian Advocacy Institute. Judge Hampel is a member of the steering committee of the International Institute of Forensic Studies, is an Adjunct Professor at Monash University and instructor of members of tribunals. She is the former President of the Victorian Council of Civil Liberties and a member of the Victorian Law Reform Commission.

Professor Christof Heyns
University of Pretoria, South Africa

Professor Heyns studied law and philosophy at the Universities of Pretoria, Yale (USA) and the Witwatersrand, and is the Director of the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria (established in 1986) and Professor of Human Rights Law at the same University. (www.up.ac.za/chr).

He has served as technical consultant in respect of the repeal of discriminatory legislation during the transition in South Africa; and has done extensive human rights consultancies and field missions for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Organisation of African Unity.

He is also author and editor of numerous publications on human rights in South Africa; Africa and the UN system. These include The Impact of the UN Human Rights Treaties on the Domestic Level, and the annual Human Rights Law in Africa Series; and he has taught and served as an external examiner in human rights courses around the world.

Professor Ivan Shearer
Faculty of Law, University of Sydney
Member, United Nations Human Rights Committee

Ivan Shearer is the Challis Professor of International Law, University of Sydney, since 1993. He is currently a Member of the UN Human Rights Committee (United Nations), a Member of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law (San Remo) and Vice-President of the International Law Association (Australian Branch). His previous positions include: the Stockton Professor of International Law, United States Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island (2000-2001); Professor of Law (1975-1992) and Dean of Law (1984-87 and 1988-90) of the University of New South Wales; a Special Adviser, Legal Office, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 1991; a Member of Australian delegations to the UN Sixth Committee and Law of the Sea PrepComs 1991-1996; an ad hoc Judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, Southern Bluefin Tuna cases, 1999; a Member of the Panel of Arbitrators of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague (since 1986). Ivan has also been a Visiting Fellow at the All Souls College Oxford, 1978-79 and had visiting appointments at the University of Cologne, the Max Planck Institute of Foreign Public and International Law in Heidelberg, the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, and the Australian National University. Ivan is admitted as a Barrister in New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria and the High Court of Australia. He was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1995.

Judge Christopher G. Weeramantry
Judge ad hoc, International Court of Justice

Judge Weeramantry, a member (1991 - 2000) of the International Court of Justice. and a former Vice President of that Court, was prior to his appointment to the Court a Professor of Law and a Justice of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. He is a Doctor of Laws of the University of London and the author of numerous books and articles published throughout the world on peace, intercultural understanding, human rights and many other related legal topics. He is founder of the Weeramantry International Centre for Peace, Education and Research and is currently an Emeritus Professor in the Law Faculty at Monash University.