Sun 25 Nov 2018 at 7pm - 9pm
The Alex Theatre
Contact Sharon Berger () for more information.
In Israel and Australia, civil society and human rights voices are under attack. A backlash against the very idea of democracy is evident as governments adopt more repressive measures to curb individual rights and silence critical voices. Join former Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs and executive director of Israel’s largest human rights organisation, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), Sharon Abraham-Weiss, to delve into these disturbing trends in both Israel and Australia.
Sharon Abraham-Weiss is the executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), Israel’s largest and oldest civil rights organisation, and the flagship grantee of the New Israel Fund. ACRI’s devotes its resources to some of Israel’s most challenging issues, including protecting Israel’s democratic institutions, freedom of speech, minority rights, refugees and asylum seekers. For five years she was Tel Aviv’s equal opportunity commissioner. Sharon was nominated by Haaretz as one of the prominent female leaders in Israel and is an outspoken voice for social change and equality for all in Israel.
Gillian Triggs was president of the Australian Human Rights Commission from 2012 to 2017. She has held many significant academic positions, including dean and professor of the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney. She is currently a vice-chancellor's fellow at the University of Melbourne and chair of Justice Connect.
Sharon and Gillian will be joined by Debbie Whitmont, an award-winning journalist, author and former Middle East correspondent for the ABC. Among other awards, Debbie has won two Walkley Awards for her work on the ABC’s Four Corners and is a three-time winner of the Human Rights Commission award for TV for her investigations into the plight of asylum seekers and indigenous affairs.