About Us

Our Advisory Council

Chris Sidoti

Chris Sidoti is a human rights lawyer, advocate and teacher. He currently works from Sydney, Australia, as an international human rights consultant, specialising in the international human rights system and in national human rights institutions. He is currently a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Independent International Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar. He was also a member of the Board of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights from 2012 to 2017. He is an adjunct professor at the Australian Catholic University.

He has had a long involvement with human rights non-government organisations. He is currently on the boards of the Human Rights Law Centre and the Human Rights Council of Australia.

He has been Australian Human Rights Commissioner (1995-2000), Australian Law Reform Commissioner (1992-1995) and Foundation Director of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (1987-1992).

Melissa Parke

Melissa Parke is the former federal member for Fremantle and former Minister for International Development. Before entering parliament, Melissa worked as a senior lawyer in the United Nations for 8 years, serving in Kosovo, Gaza, New York and Lebanon. In 2016 Melissa was appointed as an Ambassador for ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

In December 2017 Melissa was appointed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to the Group of Eminent Experts to investigate human rights violations in Yemen.

Andreas Schüller

Andreas Schüller is Program Director for International Crimes and Accountability at the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) in Berlin, Germany. Before joining ECCHR in 2009, he graduated from Trier University, Germany, and holds a LL.M. advanced degree from Leiden University, Netherlands, in Public International Law and International Criminal Law. Andreas Schüller is admitted to the Berlin bar since 2010. He publishes and lectures on international criminal law and human rights enforcement.

Professor Ben Saul

Professor Ben Saul is Challis Chair of International Law at the University of Sydney, the Whitlam and Fraser Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University, and an Associate Fellow of Chatham House, London. Ben is internationally recognised as a leading expert on global counter-terrorism law, human rights, the law of war, and international crimes. He has published 10 books, 70 scholarly articles, and hundreds of other publications and presentations, and his research has been used in various national and international courts. Ben has taught law at Oxford, the Hague Academy of International Law and in China, India, Nepal and Cambodia. Ben practises as a barrister in international and national courts, has advised various United Nations bodies and foreign governments, has delivered foreign aid projects, and often appears in the media. He has a doctorate in law from Oxford and honours in Arts and Law from Sydney.

Ben’s experience in legal practice includes cases in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, UN Human Rights Committee, UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Inter-American Court of Human Rights and numerous national legal systems (including matters involving in South Africa, Peru, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Israel, Turkey, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Macedonia, Fiji and the United States).

Professor Louise Chappell

Louise Chappell is Director of the Australian Human Rights Institute and Scientia Professor in the Law Faculty, University of New South Wales, Sydney. The Institute aims to bring an interdisciplinary focus to contemporary human rights issues and focuses especially on business and human rights, health and human rights and gender justice.  Louise is an expert in gender justice and has a particular interest in the ways in which the ICC and other international criminal tribunals addresses and redresses crimes committed against women in conflict. Her award winning book The Politics of Gender Justice at the International Criminal Court: Legacies and Legitimacy was published by Oxford University Press in 2016. Louise has also published widely on issues related to violence against women in national settings and gender equality in political, legal and corporate institutions.

Ben Batros

Ben has spent the past 18 years working on accountability for human rights violations and international crimes.  From 2001 to 2004, he worked for the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department, advising on Australia’s ratifications of the International Criminal Court Statute and coordinating the necessary legislation to implement our obligations as a State Party (including adding offences of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes to the Criminal Code).  From 2005 to 2010, he served as Appeals Counsel in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, litigating appeals across all situations and cases.  And from 2010 to 2017, he conducted strategic human rights litigation at the Open Society Justice Initiative, managing a portfolio of 60 cases before national, regional and international courts.  Since 2017, Ben has worked as a consultant on international law and accountability, based in Washington DC.  He is currently a director at Strategy for Humanity.

Ben has written extensively on international criminal law, most recently co-authoring The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court:  commentary and digest of jurisprudence; and has drafted toolkits for taking cases to the UN Human Rights Committee and Committee against Torture, and a guide for effective drafting of human rights complaints.  He holds a Master of Law from the University of Cambridge, a Bachelor of Laws (Honors) and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Australia, and a Post-Graduate Certificate in European Union Law from Kings College London.  He is admitted to legal practice in New York and in Australia.

Kate Eastman SC

Kate Eastman SC is a Sydney barrister with expertise in human rights, discrimination, employment, public and constitutional law. She was appointed Senior Counsel in 2012 and a member of New Chambers. She has appeared in many significant public law and human rights matters in the High Court of Australia. Kate is chair of the Australia Bar Association’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee, the Law Council of the Australia’s Equalizing Opportunities Committee and the NSW Bar Associations Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She was a co-founder of Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR).  Between 1995–1998, she was a Senior Legal Officer with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (now the Australian Human Rights Commission). Kate holds a Diploma of International Human Rights Law from the European University Institute, Florence Italy; a Master of Laws from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS); a Master of Laws with distinction from the University College London; and a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Laws from UNSW Sydney. She has taught at UTS, Monash University and the University of Sydney, and in a number of international programs. She is a Senior Fellow in the Law Faculty of Monash University where she teaches in the SJD/Master of Human Rights Law program.

Sarah Dale

Sarah Dale is the Principal Solicitor of the Refugee Advice & Casework Service in Sydney. She joined RACS after a number of years working with people seeking asylum and refugees in visa cancellation and civil law issues. Having developed an outreach legal service to unaccompanied children within NSW and throughout Australia, Sarah worked extensively with children who were detained on Christmas Island and faced transfer to Nauru. She has appeared before Senate Committee Hearings in regards to issues children are facing in the asylum process as well as the experiences of those in detention.