WATCH: Jen Robinson Wins Sydney Peace Prize – Consortium News

Julian Assange’s lawyer was awarded the Peace Prize at an event in Sydney on Thursday in recognition of “her unwavering commitment to international law, … free speech [and] press freedom…”

Video by Cathy Vogan for Consortium News

TRANSCRIPT Follows

From the Sydney Peace Foundation:

The 2026 Sydney Peace Prize was awarded on Thursday to Jennifer Robinson “for her unwavering commitment to international law and her dedication to upholding and promoting human rights including free speech, press freedom, and gender and climate justice.”

Robinson is an internationally renowned human rights lawyer, barrister, author, and advocate, acclaimed for her key work in human rights and media freedom cases worldwide.

As legal counsel to Julian Assange, she worked to secure his release in 2024, and has represented countries, social movements, and individuals before international courts and the United Nations. Jen has fought for accountability, challenging unlawful actions against journalists, pursuing climate justice, and supporting human rights in West Papua.

A consistent advocate for women’s rights, she has spoken out against the silencing of women by the legal system – a topic she explores in her co-authored book How Many More Women? and the newly released documentary Silenced.

TRANSCRIPT

Jennifer Robinson

Wow, thank you. It is such a huge honor to be receiving the Sydney Peace Prize and to be following in the footsteps of so many of my heroes.

A huge thank you to the Sydney Peace Foundation for this remarkable and unexpected award and for hosting us tonight and to all of you for coming to help us celebrate. I consider this award to be recognition not just of me but of the clients and the causes that I represent.

This evening I want to talk about some of them. Brave people who use their voice to demand that governments deliver on the promise of international law and human rights and ensure justice and peace.

But before I start, I too want to acknowledge that we are gathered on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. And I pay my respects to elders past, present, and emerging and to all First Nations people who are with us today. And can we have another round of applause for Erica and Talia and that amazing welcome to country.

I feel deeply privileged to be Australian and I’m proud that our nation is home to the world’s oldest living culture. I pay tribute to and celebrate First Nations communities, their culture, their resilience, and their deep and abiding connection to this land.

Indigenous Rights and Treaty

As a lawyer, I also want to acknowledge that the law has historically been used as a tool of oppression to oppress First Nations people. And for that reason, I’ve committed part of my practice to using the law and international law, to ensuring justice for our First Nation communities. And I’m also committed to using the platforms I have, including this one, to encouraging all Australians to join me in supporting First Nations initiatives or voice, truth-telling, and treaty.

Australia is the only Commonwealth colonial settler country that has not signed a national treaty with its first peoples. This must change, not just because it’s required by our international human rights obligations, but because it’s the right thing to do. The Sydney Peace Foundation recognized this when granting in 2022 the Sydney Peace Prize to the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

I want to acknowledge the generations of First Nations leaders and communities who made this possible and I thank them for the generous invitation that that was to all of us. The first step of voice referendum offered Australia a historic opportunity to begin to redress the harms of colonization by strengthening First Nations participation in our federal decision-making.

Like millions of Australians, I was utterly heartbroken and devastated by the outcome of that referendum, by the racism it unleashed, and by the devastation that that caused to our First Nations people. But I remain optimistic that we will get there and that the next generations of Australians will back it in. And now we have an example to follow in Victoria.

I want to acknowledge and celebrate the incredible work of First Nations communities, elders, and allies across Victoria who secured the first truth-telling commission in this country and last year the first treaty with First Nations people.

We are fortunate to have two of those leaders here with us tonight. Meriki Onus and Jarrod Murray Jackson, co-chairs of Galamwis, the representative body created by Victoria’s treaty. The reason I wanted them to be here tonight and the reason I’m taking time to acknowledge them and their important work is because their hard-fought progress is at risk.

The Victorian Liberal and National Parties have pledged to repeal treaty if they’re elected this month. This would constitute the first time in Australia and indeed anywhere in the world that a government would tear up a treaty with its First Nations people.

What a devastating outcome for Aboriginal communities and for everyone who worked for decades to ensure that treaty could be possible. And what a devastating indictment on us as a nation. We must not let this pass.

Public Education and Advocacy

Now, I am so thrilled that tonight we have so many public school kids here with us in the audience and I want to thank you for coming and the wonderful teachers and staff that have enabled you to be here tonight. I want you to know that just like you, I am a very proud product of Australia’s public education system.

Growing up in rural and regional New South Wales, I didn’t even know a lawyer growing up, nor did I ever see a woman who was a lawyer. I could never have imagined that I would become one. I could never have imagined I’d be working around the world on such important cases or appearing in the world’s highest court.

And I certainly could never have imagined that I would be standing here before you tonight receiving the Sydney Peace Prize. So, as a fellow public school kid, I hope that my award tonight reminds each of you that there’s no limit to what you can achieve.

And I want to take a quick minute to uh recognize another very special public school student who’s here tonight. Michael Kirby. Justice Michael Kirby. Yay.

Justice Kirby’s judgments gave me life during law school. He gave me an example of a public school kid who made it to the highest levels of the legal profession and he was the first person who helped me see the potential that I had and helped me see that I might actually be have a place in the law and be able to do something with it. So thank you Michael.

So, I want to thank the City Peace Foundation and the jury for selecting me for this amazing award and for this recognition so early in my career. It is wonderful and somewhat surreal, hard to believe actually, that I am now joining the ranks of Sydney Peace Prize recipients with the likes of Mary Robinson and Navi Pillay, two women in the law I have long admired and looked up to and strive to emulate.

Now, we’ve already heard this tonight and I’ve heard all week. Well, Navi Pillay, last year’s recipient, has now gone on to win the Nobel Peace Prize. So no pressure.

But I accept this award with great humility. I accept it as recognition of my work to date. But I see it more about being about my future. I accept it with a deep sense of responsibility to continue this work long into the future.

But I always I also see this award as recognition of the clients and the causes that I represent. brave clients and those who have the courage to speak truth to power, who have fought against powerful interests for justice, for human rights and for peace.

Desmond Tutu, another Sydney Peace Prize lawyer and Nobel Prize winner, once said that there can be no peace without justice. And he was right about that. But what I’ve learned from my clients of my work is that there can be no peace or justice without free speech.

And tonight, I want to use my platform to talk about some of those clients and the causes. Because in this dark moment in world history, people are too easily quick to dismiss international law. Too easily prone to claiming that the international rule of law is broken.

And so I hope the stories that I share with you tonight inspire you all as they inspire me to remain optimistic about the power and promise of international law to protect our human rights and about how we can all what we can all do and how we can all contribute to ensuring that it delivers on that promise because as Navi Pillay herself said without the international rule of law there is no protection for the vulnerable no restraint from violence and no credible promise of peace.

The Cause of West Papua

So my interest in international law and human rights and the power of people to create change started with East Timor through my Indonesian language studies at Bomaderry High on the south coast of New South Wales.

Yes. Do we have some High students here tonight? I hope so.

I was curious and I wanted to know about what was happening beyond my Australian backyard. I learned about Indonesia’s unlawful occupation of East Timor, about Timor’s struggle for self-determination, about the human rights atrocities being committed by Indonesian forces. I learned about how Australian journalists had been killed for reporting on what was happening there.

And I learned about the team’s leader, Xanana Gusmão, who had been jailed by Indonesia for leading the resistance. I was proud, like many of you, I’m sure, when Australia led that U.N. peacekeeping force to put an end to Indonesian atrocities and ensure the people of Timor’s freedom.

And I celebrated when Xanana Gusmão became the first president of independent Timor and later when he won the Sydney Peace Prize for his courageous leadership. This sparked my interest in international law and grounded my belief in the power it has to protect human rights and create change. and I wanted to be part of it.

So in 2002, I went to live and study in Indonesia as part of my university studies and I was planning to go to East Timor. I wanted to use my language and legal studies to help the Timorese people document Indonesian atrocities and hold them accountable.

But my academic supervisor told me I couldn’t go. East Timor was now independent and I had to stay inside Indonesia. So instead, he suggested I go to West Papua, a place and where the people face very similar issues.

I was just 21 when I went to work for a human rights organization in West Papua that was investigating the human rights violations being committed by Indonesian forces against indigenous West Papuans.

And it was there that I learned that West Papua has been unlawfully occupied by Indonesia since the 1960s.

For those who don’t know, West Papua is the western end of the island of New Guinea, just 300 kilometers north of Australia. Since Indonesian occupation, hundreds of thousands of West Papuans have been killed or forcibly disappeared by Indonesian forces. Their natural resources stolen by Indonesia and multinational corporations.

Scholars have called it a slow-moving genocide. And all of it right here in Australia’s backyard.

You probably haven’t heard about it in the media because I certainly hadn’t much before I turned up there. And that’s because Indonesia for many years had banned international organizations, journalists, and even academics from going to West Papua.

And that information blackout covered up Indonesia’s crimes. It also means that not enough people know about West Papua, about the oppression they face, and about their ongoing struggle for self-determination.

Like the Timorese, but 30 years before them, the West Papuan people were supposed to be given a free and democratic vote on whether to become part of Indonesia or to become an independent state.

But instead, in 1969, just over 1,000 men were rounded up and forced to vote at gunpoint to become part of Indonesia. This was a violation of international law. Now, what role did Australia play?

Australia had supported West Papua’s right to self-determination since the end of the Second World War. But when this sham vote took place, we looked away. West Papuans had fought with us against the Japanese during the Second World War. Fought and died with us, but we turned our backs on them in their hour of need.

And worse still, when West Papuan leaders escaped across the border into Papua New Guinea to try to travel to the U.N. to tell the world about Indonesia’s violence and that sham vote, Australian police prevented them from boarding the plane. This was a shocking injustice and West Papuans have been campaigning for their self-determination ever since.

One of the cases I worked on West Papua was the case of Benny Wenda. Like East Timor’s more famous, Benny was in prison because of his leadership of the West Papua movement for self-determination. He faced false charges, fabricated police evidence, all clearly politically motivated and designed to silence him and the movement that he led.

I began working on his trial, but it felt impossible and conviction seemed inevitable. But the and the Indonesian authorities, I can tell you, did not like me being there. They did not want me to see what was happening, and they certainly did not want me to be reporting on it. When I got back to Australia, I was threatened with arrest, prison, and deportation. And I was followed by Indonesian intelligence.

And it was because of this, Benny, I couldn’t visit Benny in prison. And he would send me letters at night that would be delivered to me in the dark of night by activists. And in those letters, Benny asked me to tell the story of West Papua here in Australia. Benny understood what I now know is that we cannot act if we do not know.

When I was finally forced to leave Indonesia, Benny remained in prison. Before I left, I helped Benny’s wife and his baby daughter, who were under pressure from the Indonesian authorities, to escape the country and into the safety of refugee camps in Papua New Guinea.

But I left the country not knowing whether I would ever see Benny again or whether he and his family would ever see each other ever again. But then just a few weeks when I returned to Australia, I got the news Benny had escaped from prison. And not only that, he was on a plane to the U.K.

So I dropped everything, got on a plane to London, and my witness evidence served as support for his asylum application detailing what I had seen in his trial, and that secured his protection.

As impossible as it had seemed just months beforehand, there we were, Benny, his wife Maria, and his baby daughter Koteka reunited at Heathrow airport. For almost 25 years now, I have been working with Benny to raise awareness about West Papua around the world. Together, we are preparing the legal case for West Papua’s self-determination.

And Koteka, his daughter, has grown into a beautiful, brave young woman who campaigns with her father for the freedom of her people. Koteka is here with us tonight. So I want to take a moment to acknowledge you and your work and the grace with which you you carry the burden of the struggle.

But over this quarter century, it’s hard to imagine that I’m old enough to even say that, but over this quarter century, there have been difficult times where I have questioned myself.

What could I contribute? And what difference could I possibly make? In the beginning, I was still a law student. I wanted to help, but it felt impossible. And everybody kept telling me it was impossible, that West Papua would never get their independence, that the powerful interests stacked up against us were too great and that Australia would not support it and would not take on Indonesia.

But Benny was confident in his cause and in me and he would say, “Adik,” which means little sister in Indonesian, “West Papua will be free. focus on your studies and one day when you’re a big-name lawyer, you’ll help us.”

And it was around that time that I met had the amazing opportunity of meeting Desmond Tutu, who I can now say is a fellow Sydney Peace Prize recipient. Really rolls off the tongue.

I talked to him about West Papua, a cause he came to support and that he later raised at the United Nations. I told him how I felt demoralized. And I asked him how he kept hope during the darkest days of apartheid. He took my hand and he said to me gently, “History is long, but know that justice will prevail.” And then he laughed that delightful laugh that he had and reminded me cheerfully that change is not inevitable, so you just have to keep trying.

Desmond Tutu taught me that history only bends towards justice if we keep pushing it in that direction. And so I’ve kept trying. Benny taught me that by acting with courage and persistence, the impossible can become possible. He was a political prisoner and against all odds escaped prison. He escaped from prison, secured his family’s safety, and built a global solidarity campaign that now has support from around the world.

It is the same campaign for which he’s been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and has been compared to Xanana Gusmão and José Ramos-Horta. His campaign for Indonesia to allow the United Nations to access West Papua now has the support of 110 governments including Australia. And in 2019, I became the youngest Australian woman to address the International Court of Justice when I appeared for Vanuatu in a case to make the legal arguments that made clear that West Papua has the right to self-determination.

The court’s decision in the Chagos Islands case clarified international law. Applying that law to West Papua, it is clear that West Papua is unlawfully occupied by Indonesia. And that means that all states including Australia have an obligation to help the West Papuan people achieve their freedom.

Melanesian and Pacific states like Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands stand up for West Papua and advocate for the people of West Papua, but Australia still does not. And people tell me that West Papua is still an impossible cause and ask me why I bother. Then he inspired me to believe it’s possible. and to continue to work towards making it possible.

And that belief is based in history. Australia has changed its tune about an unlawful occupation by Indonesia before. For decades, Australia was complicit in Indonesia’s unlawful occupation of East Timor. And we were told by successive governments that it would be impossible for Timor to gain their independence.

The courage and persistence of the Timorese people and their leaders like my fellow Sydney Peace Prize recipient Xanana Gusmão has inspired Benny that liberation is possible for West Papua too. And maybe one day Benny or perhaps my Adik Koteka will become a fellow Sydney Peace Prize winner for securing West Papua’s freedom.

The Case of Julian Assange

East Timor and West Papua taught me that silence breeds impunity and free speech and transparency can bring justice, accountability and change. So when I was asked to represent Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, I immediately understood the importance of Julian’s work.

Julian founded WikiLeaks with the mission of using transparency to advance justice. WikiLeaks published classified information from the U.S. government that revealed evidence of war crimes, human rights abuse, and corruption the world over and the true civilian cost of America’s neverending wars.

It was for this work that Julian was awarded the Sydney Peace Foundation’s gold medal for human rights in 2011, an honor previously awarded to Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama. The award was for his exceptional courage in pursuit of human rights and his work has furthered the cause of human rights accountability.

WikiLeaks documents have been cited as evidence in the U.K. Supreme Court, the European Court of Human Rights, and even in the International Court of Justice. His work has also furthered peace in relation to the Iraq war. Julian once said, “If lies can start the war, then the truth can stop it.” And he was right.

WikiLeaks published evidence about the atrocities committed by U.S. soldiers against Iraqi civilians, including children. This led the Parliament of Iraq to withdraw the immunity that had previously protected U.S. soldiers from criminal prosecution.

And once it became clear that U.S. soldiers could be held accountable for their crimes, the U.S. withdrew those forces from Iraq. So there it was again like in East Timor the power of truth to end impunity and to end occupation but for this work in service of truth justice and peace Julian faced 175 years in a U.S. prison.

The U.S. tried to extradite and prosecute him for the very same publications for which he won the Sydney Human Rights Medal and the Walkley Award for most outstanding contribution to journalism.

And again, people told me, “It’s impossible. You’ll never be able to get him out of prison.” But I didn’t want to live in a democracy where an Australian publisher could spend the rest of his life in prison for revealing evidence of war crimes.

It took 14 years of my life and his. But I’m very happy to say that Julian is now living at home here in Australia with his family.

But that outcome was not inevitable. It took sustained commitment, litigation in more jurisdictions than I ever want to have to recount. and public advocacy explaining to the U.N., to courts, to government, to the public that the U.S. prosecution of Julian Assange violated our international internationally protected right to free speech and indeed the U.S.’s own first amendment. And it took the courage and the persistence that I learned from Benny because it would take six prime ministers before one would work with me to bring Julian home.

Our prime minister Anthony Albanese showed principled leadership, but he also needed yes and he deserves a round of applause for that. But he also needed the support of the Australian public to do it. It took the many individuals and communities who protested and campaigned across this country to pressure our government and demand that they brought Julian home.

It was the cross party political support that we built that allowed our prime minister to be able to say to the United States that this was a political issue in Australia. One he had an obligation in our democracy to act upon and that it was an issue that was not going away whether or not he was the prime minister or someone else sat in that seat.

It wasn’t enough that Julian was a fellow Australian citizen. And it wasn’t enough that international law and free speech was on our side. The Australian and U.S. governments needed to be moved by the public and moved they were.

Climate Justice and Action

I want to turn now to an issue that threatens all of us, the greatest threat to human rights, peace and security, climate change. This problem is so big and so overwhelming. What can we really do to stop it?

But a small group of Pacific Island students recently reminded me yet again of the power of people to move governments and to move international law on climate change. Our Pacific Island neighbors are already facing catastrophic damage.

Rising sea levels mean people are losing their homes, their lands, their freshwater sources, and their cultural heritage. Climate induced cyclones are destroying lives, livelihoods, and entire economies. The cost of adaptation runs into the billions, and this is billions that the Pacific Island states don’t have and simply cannot afford.

And yet, the Pacific’s contribution to climate change is negligible, and next to nothing when compared to the emissions of countries like Australia, China, and the U.S., which profit from fossil fuels, while the Pacific wears the cost. And this is what we call climate injustice.

This small group of law students at the University of the South Pacific in Vanuatu decided they wanted to take action to address it. The problem was and the problem still is that their home states in the Pacific are not able to regulate to stop the emissions from countries like ours here in Australia. That is beyond the jurisdiction of any one state.

So frustrated by the failure of governments including Australia to take the necessary climate action that we need, the students turned to international law. The world’s highest court had given important decisions on environmental law like for example the case on nuclear weapons. So why not then ask the international court to render an opinion about climate change that would bind all states and drive global climate action.

The idea had been mooted in academic circles and I had also considered it but it was deemed to be politically possible for the international court of justice to rule on climate change. A state needed to make a request to the U.N. General Assembly and not only that a majority of U.N. member states or a majority of all governments in the world had to vote in favor of it. So those students had to find a government that was willing to take it on and in the process take on the world’s superpowers and the entire global fossil fuel industry.

They were told this would be impossible. But they didn’t let that stop them. They organized and they demanded action calling on Pacific governments to take up the cause. And finally the government of Vanuatu listened. And it was in that context that I got a phone call to join the legal team for Vanuatu. That was a brief I accepted with utter enthusiasm.

Like many Australians, I was absolutely devastated by the Black Summer Fires that ravaged our home and my beloved South Coast. For me, this wasn’t just about protecting the Pacific. It was about protecting Australia and ensuring a livable future for my nieces and nephews and for future generations of Australians.

Working with a brilliant team of young Pacifica lawyers, we prepared a legal and diplomatic strategy and went to work. Three years later, I got to sit in the U.N. General Assembly in New York to watch the vote on our resolution. For the first time in U.N. history, that resolution passed by consensus. Not one government voted against it.

So courageous little Vanuatu, a government of less — sorry, a country of less than 350,000 people had pulled off what superpowers had never achieved. And for me, the most moving part of that day in New York was hearing government after government stand up in the General Assembly and thank those students and the young people from around the world who had demanded this action of them.

And two years later, we were in the International Court of Justice and I’m proud to have acted for Vanuatu and for the Marshall Islands, two of the world’s most climate vulnerable nations. We argued that the evidence was clear about climate change and who is responsible for it. States have known since at least the 1960s that burning fossil fuels will cause climate change and its catastrophic consequences we’re seeing today. And yet Australia and other states have continued to burn, export, and subsidize fossil fuels.

We argue that this violates international law. We argue that all states have an obligation to prevent the risk of damage to our climate system. And we argue that the failure to do so gives rise to an obligation which is enforceable to pay compensation to the states who have been damaged by climate change.

I’m sad to say that the Australian government joined a small group of states, including the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Russia, who argued that we were wrong. But I’m happy to say that Australia was wrong and on the wrong side of history.

Last year, the International Court of Justice handed down its unanimous ruling. The historic decision sets out that all states have an obligation to prevent climate change and to protect our human rights. The U.N. Secretary General has described it as a historic victory for our planet, for climate justice, and for the power of young people to make a difference.

And we’re already seeing its impact. Countries like the U.K. have announced that they’re going to phase out fossil fuels. Here in Australia, state governments are being warned by our climate authority that continuing to approve coal mines could expose our federal government to international liability and financial damages.

Just last month, the International Court’s decision was cited by our high court when it refused to permit the expansion of the Mount Pleasant coal mine. And all of this started with 27 law students in a classroom in Vanuatu.

Just imagine what we could achieve if we all shared their courage and their ambition. Those students continue to inspire me about what’s possible for tackling climate injustice, for West Papua, and for the many other injustices we see in this world. Now, we just need to see the courage from Australian leaders to use the decision and act on it and courage from every single one of you in this room to demand that they do.

It really shouldn’t take courage, but I’m sad to say that Australia is among the worst offenders when it comes to arresting climate protesters. We arrest climate protesters at three times the global average. Governments ban protests like the rising tide protests in Newcastle this week because protests work.

Climate risk assessments warn that Darwin and the northern parts of Australia will be uninhabitable by 2070. The Torres Strait islands are going underwater and in my lifetime we are going to see internally displaced people in our country because of climate change. Already thousands of Australians are dying from heat related deaths and as a result of climate induced weather events more and more Australians are not able to insure their homes.

Taxpayers are paying for disaster relief while the fossil fuel companies continue to profit. And if these facts and international law are not enough to move our government to action, then we must move them and remind them that they are accountable to us and not to fossil fuel companies.

Global Human Rights Concerns

But there is no doubt we are in a pretty dark moment in the world where those telling the truth and calling for justice and change are being silenced. And I see it so often in my work. For years I’ve worked with the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate and the International Federation of Journalists to seek justice and accountability for Israel’s deliberate targeting and killing of Palestinian journalists.

Palestinian journalists including Shireen Abu Akleh have been targeted and killed despite wearing clearly marked blue press vests. This is a war crime for which Israeli officials should be criminally prosecuted.

It’s also a war crime to cover up war crimes. In the past 2 years, Israel has killed hundreds of journalists and media workers. As Muhammad said, it’s been the deadliest period in history for journalists. The effect of this and the banning of international journalists from entering Gaza is to silence reporting on Israel’s war crimes and prevent the world from seeing the truth what’s happening.

And yet, Israeli officials continue to target Palestinian journalists with utter impunity. The ICC has so far failed to seek to prosecute one Israeli official for their crimes towards journalists despite our best attempts.

And the killings continue now spreading into Lebanon with the killing of and murder of Lebanese journalists including my client Issam Abdallah. Now international law provides the answers about truth, justice, and accountability and we will continue to demand that it delivers.

I represent Iranian journalists who work for the BBC Persian service. They have been forced into exile and cannot return home to Iran because they will face the death penalty for their reporting on what’s happening in Iran. At home, their assets have been frozen and their families face arbitrary arrest and detention.

Iran’s repression now reaches across borders with journalists living and working in London facing serious death threats. And an Iranian military spokesperson said in a recent public statement that the BBC is a legitimate military target.

This all violates international law and we continue to raise these cases at the United Nations. We continue to call on governments including Australia to condemn the unlawful actions of both Iran and Israel. In Hong Kong, my client Jimmy Lai lies in prison for his journalism and his advocacy for human rights and democracy. His newspaper Apple Daily was forced to close and he’s a prisoner of conscience.

At 78 years old, he could die in prison if urgent action is not taken. And now international law demands his immediate and unconditional release and we must continue to demand it. In Pakistan, Imran Khan has been jailed to prevent him from taking political office.

Despite being in jail, his political party swept through the elections and won. But members and supporters of his political party have faced mass arrests, enforced disappearances, and killings. His family members have been arbitrarily detained.

And I raise it because I’ve had the great privilege of spending time in Pakistan with Imran and his family. And I’ve raised his case at the United Nations. And I stand with his family, his sons, and the people of Pakistan in calling for Imran’s release.

But I can’t let Australia go unmentioned. Here in Australia, the rates of Aboriginal deaths in custody are shameful. In 2015, my client David Dungay Jr. said, “I can’t breathe.” at least 12 times before he was killed by prison officers. More than a decade on, his family still fights for justice.

Calls for Justice and Change

But David’s case is just one of 645 Aboriginal deaths in custody since 1991. That’s 645 bereaved families and communities. 27 Aboriginal people have died in custody this year alone. Just 1 percent of these cases have resulted in criminal prosecution. And in only one case has a police officer ever been convicted.

This impunity must end. The point of criminal prosecution is to deter and to stop those killings. So with David’s mom, Latona, we have taken his case to the U.N. to argue that Australia’s failure to prosecute black death in custody violates international law.

But it’s past time that our governments act. Here in Australia and around the world, survivors of domestic and sexual violence are being silenced by defamation claims. This too violates international law. Violence against women is a national emergency in this country and we cannot begin to tackle it if we can’t talk about it. A

s we argue in our book, How Many More Women and now in our film, Silenced, we need to better protect women’s free speech and their right to free speech so that we can end violence against women. I’m now working with community groups from across Australia to use our film to advocate for the law reform that we need, but we haven’t achieved it yet.

This year alone, 52 women in Australia have lost their lives to violence. It would be easy to look at all of these examples with despair and to claim that they are proof that the international rule of law is broken. But a rule that is broken is not a rule that has failed.

These are problems that we haven’t yet solved. And international law is how we resolve them. International law provides us with a map. It tells us what is wrong and gives us a normative framework and language to challenge injustice and to challenge the wrongs of government. I’ve spent my career working on cases like this. I’ve seen that international law can work. I’ve seen that we can win when everyday people use their voices and put pressure on governments to do the right thing.

We can’t just sit back and hope that things will get better. Hope is a verb. If we don’t keep trying to make it better, it won’t get better. And as Desmond Tutu fftaught me, change is not inevitable. We have to keep trying.

And so I keep trying. But frankly, I need your help. Lawyers like me need your help. We need you to demand better of those in power. We need you to demand that our government does what is required under international law on climate, on human rights, on Palestine, on West Papua.

Contact your local MP. Join the protests. Donate to support my clients and those on the front line of these struggles because everyone can play a role. My clients have taught me and have shown the courage to take on some of the world’s most powerful interests to challenge injustice. Using their voice, they have made a real difference for justice and for peace. 

The wins we have had together show us what’s possible. They inspire me to keep fighting for the wins that we still need to have. And I hope that inspires you, too. and I hope that you’ll join me in helping make those wins possible. Thank you again to the Sydney Peace Foundation.