Human rights, artificial intelligence and government decision-making

I have been granted a Rotary International Scholarship to undertake a PhD in human rights law at the University of Oxford.  I will talk to Rotary Central Melbourne on my career trajectory to date as a human rights lawyer working within government, what my studies will entail and how they will contribute to the ‘peace and conflict resolution’ research goal of Rotary International.

I am the Managing Principal Solicitor – Human Rights within Victoria Police. In this role I am responsible for providing human rights training and legal advice across the whole of the organisation for frontline police through to senior leaders, on their human rights obligations under the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006.

Before this role, I was the project manager of the Charter Education Project within the human rights unit in the Victorian Department of Justice and Regulation. In that role, I led a project that sought to boost the protection and promotion of human rights within the Victorian Government through face-to-face human rights training. I trained (alongside my colleagues) over 10,000 public servants working in prisons, hospitals, schools, transport, police and many other areas. This project was a national finalist in the 2018 Australian Human Rights Awards.

I have also worked as a lawyer for the Australian Federal Police and as a Senior Policy Officer at the Alexander Machonochie Centre (the first Australian prison designed and operated explicitly within a human rights legal framework). I undertook my undergraduate studies at the Australian National University and a Master of Laws degree at the University of Melbourne.