Our primary focus is Victoria and Australia, although we engage with broader rule of law issues in the Asia-Pacific region where appropriate to our aims and experience.
Apolitical and focused on legal principles and analysis, ICJV aims to do work that is impactful, deliberative, and substantive. This includes making submissions on topics that involve rule of law and human rights issues, supporting the use of international principles in domestic practice, and hosting opportunities for dialogue and education on these themes.
ICJV’s Mission & Purpose
Human rights, as articulated in international standards, are universal, interdependent and indivisible.
As an independent sub-national affiliate of the International Commission of Jurists (the ICJ Geneva), ICJV aligns itself with the mission of the Commission which includes:
to promote adherence to and observance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other similar international instruments;
to promote the conclusion, ratification, and implementation of conventions, covenants, and protocols protecting human rights, especially in Australia and the nations of Southeast Asia and the Pacific;
to provide an organisation through which the legal profession and others interested in human rights can protect and sustain the Rule of Law and promote the observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms;
to help, advise and encourage all who seek to achieve, by means of the Rule of Law universal respect for and promote the observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms; and
to co-operate with similar organisations in Australia and other countries through the channels provided by ICJ Geneva and other available means.
Our 2024 Executive Committee:
President
The Hon Justice Lesley Taylor (Supreme Court of Victoria)
Vice-President
Judge Paul Higham (County Court of Victoria)
Chair
Julian McMahon SC
Deputy Chair
Campbell Thomson
Secretary
Celine Lau
Treasurer
Amelia Edwards
Executive members
Jennifer Keene-McCann
Simon Thompson