Gillian Triggs - Human Rights Lawyer

Gillian Triggs interviewed for oral history
Gillian Triggs interviewed for oral history
Gillian Triggs held the position of President of the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) from 2012-2017. During her term, she focused on the implementation in Australian law of the human rights treaties to which Australia is a party and on working with nations in the Asia Pacific region on practical approaches to human rights. Prior to taking up this appointment she served as Dean and Challis Professor of International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Sydney (2007-2012) and as director of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (2005-2007). Her previous position was as professor at the Melbourne University Law School. After completing her term as President of the AHRC, in 2019 the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres appointed Triggs to the role of Assistant High Commissioner for Protection at UNHCR. She completed her term in December 2023.
Early life and travel
Gillian Triggs was born in Muswell Hill, London, on 30 October 1945. She has a younger sister, Carol. Her parents were Richard and Doreen (nee Knock) Triggs. Her father, a major in the British army during World War Two, returned to the family jewellery business after the end of the conflict. Her mother served in the British Navy. Although not a Catholic, Triggs was educated at Manor House Convent and learned ballet, intending to become a professional dancer. As a young child growing up after the end of the war, she became very conscious of poverty and neglect, and discrimination to some extent.
In 1958, Triggs and her family migrated to Australia. The sea voyage exposed her to a much bigger life than that of little England. She smelled poverty again in Port Said and Yemen. She observed the lives of other people; the treatment of women, and became aware of death, guns, conflict and discrimination.
They settled in Croydon an eastern suburb of Melbourne. Triggs attended University High School and the University of Melbourne where she completed a law degree in 1968. International law captured her interest. In 1969, she was admitted to practise as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria. Subsequently she married, travelled to Canada and the United States of America (USA) where in 1972, she completed a Master of Laws at the Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas and afterwards worked for the Dallas Police Department interpreting Civil Rights legislation for the Chief of Police.
On her return to the University of Melbourne in 1976, she completed a PhD on territorial sovereignty in 1982. She travelled to Antarctica for two months under the auspices of the Australian Government’s Antarctic Science Advisory Council. From 1996-2005, she held the position of Professor of Law at the University of Melbourne Law School. She is the author of books, book chapters and journal articles.
Time as President of the Australian Human Rights Commission
On 27 July 2012, Triggs retired as Dean of the Sydney Law School to take up the position as President of the AHRC for a five-year term, commencing 30 July 2012. The AHRC has the mandate to hold to account both the government and private sector for compliance with the human rights treaties to which Australia is a party and the four non-discrimination laws re sex, race, age and disability. The major role for the President and the seven commissioners is advocacy on race, gender, age, disability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and children, along with general human rights such as LGBTI and arbitrary detention.
Triggs’ term as President invited much media attention. In 2014, she launched the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention to investigate the ways in which life in Immigration detention affects the health, well-being and development of children. She travelled to Christmas Island and other detention centres where she witnessed the distress of the asylum seekers and their children and the inhumane treatment that they received.
The Abbott government criticised the timing of the release of the report in 2015. She received strong public support, including a censure motion passed in the Senate against the Attorney-General at the time, Georg Brandis, over his attacks on her as president of the AHRC. A major issue during her presidency was section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, which the government wanted amended.
During her period as president of the AHRC Triggs delivered many lectures, orations and talks which focused on the Australian government’s responsibilities to ensure that it met its human rights obligations when drafting laws. She pointed out the areas in which governments had fallen short in this obligation, especially in the rights of asylum seekers in detention, particularly children. She was critical too, of Executive Government overreach in legislation with a compliant parliament failing to protect basic human rights in Australia.
‘“A fair Go” for all’
The 2017 Hobart Oration which Triggs delivered on Thursday 30 March 2017, was entitled: ‘“A fair Go” for all’: the state of human rights protection in Australia’. She made the case that protection of human rights is intrinsic to the notion of ‘a fair go.’
She argued that a ‘fair go’ is the genuine commitment of Australians to fundamental principles of equality, fairness for all and justice; a cultural norm upon which our democracy depends. For her, the most disappointing aspect of Australia’s failure to protect human rights has been the failure of parliament itself. She argued that successive federal parliaments, often supported by opposition parties, have acquiesced in passing laws, introduced by the government of the day, that breach our basic human rights.
Learning activities
Activity 1: Being objective
Triggs discusses being the President of the Australian Human Rights Commission. During her time as president, she received objections from the Government. Explore media stories related to Triggs’ presidency on Trove.
- Why it is important the AHRC is separate from the Government?
Activity 2: Speaking up
In 2017, Triggs gave the Hobart Oration.
- Read or listen to her speech on the Australian Human Rights Commission website.
- Identify Triggs’ arguments and any examples of adopted laws in Australia that breach Australia’s international treaty obligations.
Activity 3: Rights and recognition
Review resources:
- Australian Women Lawyers as Active Citizens
- Australian Women’s Register
- Australian Dictionary of Biography
Explore other Australian women who have worked to improve the rights and recognition of refugees, women and the rights and recognition of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Activity 4: Domestic and international
How did/do their professional lives operate in a domestic Australian context and how much of their professional life operates in an international context? See The International Stage: Australian women lawyers as active citizens.
Activity 5: Active citizenship
What does it mean to be an active citizen? See Australian Women Lawyers as Active Citizens.