Under Victoria's Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities, public sector workers have obligations to act compatibly with human rights and to consider human rights in their decisions. Our Charter Champions seminar series provides engaging conversations about the role of human rights in Victoria's public sector.

With four seminars per year, the Charter Champions seminar series brings together human rights experts from the public service, academia and advocacy to share practical strategies for embedding human rights in your work and decision-making processes.

For our first seminar in the series, Professor Paula Gerber, one of Australia’s preeminent human rights scholars, shares insights into the scope of children's rights in Australia and Victoria. Professor Gerber will share her reflections on the interaction of children’s rights with the work of the Victorian public sector including:

the child protection system and the relationship between families and children
the collective and individual rights of First Nations children and families
raising the age of criminal responsibility in Victoria
children’s rights in custodial settings
equitable access in the education space for children with disability, First Nations children, and children of all gender identities and sexual orientations.

Event details

Title: Charter Champions Seminar 1: Upholding children's rights
Date and time: 10am, Thursday 9 May 2024
Format: Keynote presentation with quiz and Q&A
Delivery: via Zoom
Audience: Victorian public sector workers
Cost: Free to attend, but registration required

Our speaker, Professor Paula Gerber

Paula Gerber is a Professor in the Faculty of Law at Monash University and also Associate Dean (Education). She is a leading expert in two distinct areas, namely, international human rights law and construction law. Prior to entering academia, Paula worked as a lawyer in London, Los Angeles and Melbourne.

Paula’s human rights research, teaching and advocacy has a particular focus on children’s rights, the rights of LGBTIQA+ people and Indigenous peoples’ rights. More recently she has started to research the intersection of climate change and human rights, following three study trips to Fiji with Monash first-year students as part of the Global Immersion Guarantee program.

She has written and edited numerous books, journal articles and book chapters on human rights issues, including most recently the 3-volume collection Worldwide Perspectives on Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals (2021) and the 2-volume collection Critical Perspectives on Human Rights Law in Australia (2021) (with Melissa Castan). She is also regularly approached by media for expert commentary on LGBTIQA+ human rights issues.

Paula is also chair of Kaleidoscope Human Rights Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation that works to advance the rights of LGBTIQA+ people in the Asia-Pacific region.