It was standing room only at the Arts Theatre, UNE last Thursday when former President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs, presented the 13th in Armidale Sanctuary's Annual Series of Human Rights Lectures.
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Professor Triggs signed many copies of her autobiography Speaking Up in the foyer before giving the lecture.
The packed audience was treated to a cogent and detailed argument, from a gifted and articulate speaker, who said the rights and basic freedoms of Australians have been whittled away by successive governments over the past decade.
The summation of this evidence led to Triggs' conclusion that, in order to protect our freedoms, we need a Charter of Rights in Australia.
The lecture was live-streamed by UNE which meant many people who could not attend had access to Professor Trigg's speech.
For those interested who missed both lecture and the live streaming, a film copy of her talk will be available, courtesy of UNE, in the Armidale War Memorial Library.
President of Sanctuary, Lucinda Wright introduced the speaker and spoke of the admiration she had of the strength shown by Professor Triggs when she was under fire from the federal government for her stalwart defence of the commission's actions.
That was in 2014 when the Abbott government attacked the commission and Professor Triggs personally, for conducting an investigation into children in detention. They labelled her partisan for not conducting the review while the previous Labor government had been in power.
READ MORE: Triggs makes 2018 Women of Influence list
At the Armidale Sanctuary Human Rights Lecture, Lucinda also talked briefly of the work Sanctuary volunteers are now doing to assist settlement of Ezidi refugees in Armidale.
Later, a young Ezidi woman who has aspirations to become a Human Rights lawyer, Midya Nari, thanked Professor Triggs on behalf of all present.
Anyone wishing to know more about Sanctuary is welcome to contact Jan Wyles on 0414 264 140.
