The AALA is very pleased to announce that Professor the Hon. Gareth Evans AC QC is our new Victorian Patron. Professor Evans brings to this role not only esteemed service to the Australian legal profession and Asia‐Australia international relations, but passionate commitment to the cause of greater Asian‐Australian representation in leadership positions in both the public and private sectors.
Professor Evans is Distinguished Honorary Professor at the Australian National University, where he was Chancellor from 2010 to 2019, and President Emeritus of the International Crisis Group, the Brussels‐based independent global conflict prevention and resolution organisation which he led as President and CEO from 2000 to 2009.
During his 21 yearsin Australian politics, from 1978 to 1999, he was a Cabinet Minister in the Hawke and Keating Labor Governments in the posts of Attorney General, Minister for Resources and Energy, Minister for Transport and Communications and Foreign Minister, and both Leader of the Government in the Senate and Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives.
He has written or edited thirteen books and published around 150 journal articles, chapters, and reports, and many more opinion articles, on foreign relations, human rights and legal and constitutional reform; has honorary doctorates from Melbourne, Sydney, Carleton and Queen’s Universities; and has lectured at many universities around the world.
He has co‐chaired two major International Commissions, on Intervention and State Sovereignty, and Nuclear Non‐Proliferation and Disarmament, and has been a member of a number of others. He currently chairs the International Advisory Board of the New‐York based Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, the Asia Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non‐Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN) and the Advisory Board of the ANU Centre for Asian‐Australian Leadership.
Gareth Evans was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 2012 for his "eminent service to international relations, particularly in the Asia‐Pacific region, as an adviser to governments on global policy matters, to conflict prevention and resolution, and to arms control and disarmament", and in the same year was elected an honorary Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia (FASSA). In 2016 he was awarded by the Sir Edward 'Weary' Dunlop Asialink Medal "for long‐term commitment to improving Australia‐Asia relations". In December 2015 he was made a Companion of the Order of O.R. Tambo by South African for his contributionsto the anti‐apartheid movement. Foreign Policy magazine cited him as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers for 2011 "for making 'the responsibility to protect' more than academic". In 2010 he was awarded the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute Four Freedoms Award for Freedom from Fear, for his pioneering work on the Responsibility to Protect concept and his contributions to conflict prevention and resolution, arms control and disarmament.
Professor Evans’s credentials and abilities will significantly assist AALA in promoting cultural diversity through advocating for greater Asian‐Australian representation in the senior echelons of the Australian legal profession and AALA is delighted to have his support.
AALA Press Release - 1 July 2021.pdf
