Leveraging Digital Public Goods for Access to Justice

RMIT’s Business and Human Rights Centre (BHRIGHT) invites you to an Interdisciplinary Workshop on Access to Justice and Digital Public Goods presented by an international expert on access to justice for women, people with disability, and vulnerable children.

As the developed world embraces AI and digital systems, disadvantaged communities, vulnerable populations and women and girls are being left behind. Digital Public Goods (DPGs) provides a way of securing better access to services, reducing discrimination and strengthening social innovation. In September 2024 the global digital compact was adopted by 193 UN member states – including Australia. The UN also released the digital public infrastructure universal safeguards. The purpose of this workshops it to promote the development and application of existing DPGs for new contexts. It aims to develop multi-stakeholder initiatives that facilitate the discovery development, use of, and investment in digital public goods.

Following Cate Sumner’s keynote presentation, we will have a facilitated discussion on lessons for Australia from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Keynote speaker: Cate Sumner has contributed to research and policy development for UN Women, the World Bank, the Lowy Institute, and the Centre for Global Development. In 2019, she was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to explore how collaborative funding models combining government, corporate and philanthropic support can fund free legal services for women and children experiencing violence. Cate’s Churchill Fellowship led to a coalition of organisations establishing Tasmania’s first health, justice, housing partnership called Just Healthy Families providing specialist family violence legal services at 19 locations across Tasmania, including the Hobart Women’s Shelter. In its first 30 months, Just Healthy Family lawyers have assisted more that 3500 women and children across Tasmania. Cate was inducted into the Tasmanian Women’s Honour Roll in March 2025.

Light lunch will be provided. 

Questions? Please contact BHRIGHT’s Health Theme lead: penelopejune.weller@rmit.edu.au.