Megan Davis

Megan Jane Davis (born October 1975) is a Scientia Professor, international human rights lawyer and constitutional law expert. She is currently the Harvard University Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser Chair in Australia Studies and Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School.

She holds the Balnaves Chair in Constitutional Law at UNSW and is the Director of the Indigenous Law Centre, UNSW.

Davis was a United Nations expert on the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (2011-2016) and UN expert on Indigenous rights on the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) (2017-2022).

She was the first Indigenous woman from Australia to be elected via ECOSOC competitive elections to serve on a United Nations body and also served as Rapporteur and Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Davis also served as deputy chair and Chair of EMRIP.

During her two terms Prof Davis held portfolios including Administration of Justice and Gender and Women and was the focal point for UN Women and UN AIDS. Megan was the Rapporteur of the UN Expert Group Meeting on an Optional Protocol to the UNDRIP as well as the author of a UNPFII study on a supervisory mechanism for UNDRIP (2014). Megan was the UN Rapporteur for the 2012 International Expert Group Meeting on Combating violence against indigenous women and girls: article 22 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which produced the first major UN report on Indigenous women, and was the UN Rapporteur for the International EGM on Indigenous Youth.

Professor Davis specialises in Indigenous peoples and the law, democracy, and the constitutional recognition of First Nations. She is especially known for her work on the ''Uluru Statement from the Heart''. She designed the Referendum Council’s deliberative process that led to the Uluru Statement from the Heart and has been a leading expert on the recognition of First Nations peoples for two decades.  

Professor Davis is a Sydney Peace Prize Laureate, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, and the Australian Academy of the Humanities. She is an Acting Commissioner of the New South Wales Land and Environment Court.

Davis was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in the 2025 Australia Day Honours.

Early life and education

Megan Jane Davis was born in October 1975 in Monto. Her family moved along the Queensland Railway. Her ancestry is Aboriginal Australian ( Cobble Cobble, from south-east Queensland) and South Pacific Islander.

She was brought up by a single mother and one of her earliest interests was the Australian Constitution and the United Nations General Assembly.UNSW human rights lawyer Professor Megan Davis has been elected Chair of the United Nation's Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
, 22 April 2015, UNSW.edu.au, Retrieved 12 August 2016 She attended the University of Queensland, earning a law degree. In this period she met and was mentored by Jackie Huggins, who convinced her to work for the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action (FAIRA) in Brisbane, which led her to apply to the United Nations Fellowship.

Career

Davis was an international lawyer at the United Nations, where in the period from 1999 until 2004 she helped work on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, including providing legal advice to ATSIC Commissioners during the drafting stages.

In 2010, she became the first Indigenous person from Australia to be elected to a United Nations body when she was elected to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous IssuesMegan Davis
womenaustralia.info, Retrieved 11 August 2016 which is based in New York. holding that position from 2011 to 2016.Five questions to Megan Davis: on Aboriginal self-determination
16 May 2014, The Guardian, Retrieved 12 August 2016 She has been a member of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) since 2017, and in July 2021 to 2022, she was elected its chair.

Davis was on the Australian Government's Expert Panel on the Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the Constitution in 2011, and was a member of the Prime Minister's Referendum Council from 2015-2017.

As a member of the Referendum Council, Davis was instrumental in assisting the development of the ''Uluru Statement From the Heart'', designing the deliberative dialogues and chairing the Council's sub-committee for the First Nations regional Dialogues and the First Nations Constitutional Convention in 2017.

She served on the Referendum Working Group, Referendum Engagement Group, and the Attorney General’s Constitutional Expert Group from 2022–2023 that advised on the Voice to Parliament referendum in 2023. She is Co-Chair of the Uluru Dialogue – the group of First Nations leaders who lead the Uluru Statement from the Heart work.  

Davis has been the Director of the Indigenous Law Centre (part of the UNSW law faculty) since 2006. She was appointed UNSW Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous in 2017and Balnaves Chair in Constitutional Law in 2020. She is currently the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Society at UNSW.

Davis has extensive experience on Indigenous peoples and reform of regulatory systems including as a Commissioner on the QLD Commission of Inquiry into Youth Detention Centres in 2016 alongside co-Commissioner Kathryn McMillan KC. She was also the Chair and author of ‘Family is Culture’, an inquiry into NSW Aboriginal Children in Out of Home care (2017-2019).

In 2023 she wrote "Voice of Reason: On Recognition and Renewal" which was published by ''Quarterly Essay.''

Other roles

In 2017, Davis was appointed a Commissioner on the Australian Rugby League Commission. In 2020 she was reappointed for another term. Davis has described growing up in a "crazy rugby league family", and wanting to "give back to a game that gave so much to me and my family". Davis is also a director on the North Queensland Cowboys Community Foundation Board, a Commissioner for South Australian Rugby League, and formerly a director on the Western Australia Rugby League Commission.

Awards and honours

* In 2013, Davis was named National Australia Bank/Women's Agenda Inspirational Ambassador Award.
* In 2014, Davis was awarded University of Queensland Indigenous Community Impact Award.
* In 2017, Davis was elected Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. She was also named as one of the 10 most influential people in Australian culture by ''The Australian Financial Review'' in 2017.
* In October 2018, Professor Davis was named overall winner of ''The Australian Financial Review'' 100 Women of Influence award and was the winner of the public policy category. Prof Davis was also named as one of Australia’s 100 Women of Influence by the Australian Financial Review and Westpac in 2016 and 2013.
* In 2018, Davis was named Indigenous Alumna of the Year by ANU.

* In 2021, Professor Davis was awarded honorary doctorate by University of Queensland.
* In 2021, the Uluru Statement from the Heart is awarded the Sydney Peace Prize, and in 2022, Professor Davis accepted the Sydney Peace Prize alongside Pat Anderson and Noel Pearson, on behalf of the ''Uluru Statement From the Heart''.

* in 2022, Davis was named as one of Australia’s top 5 Legal Powerbrokers by the Australian Financial Review.
* Davis is listed on the Te Hononga Pūkenga ("the connection of experts") database of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, New Zealand's Māori Centre of Research Excellence.
* In 2023, Davis was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. In the same year, Professor Davis is named the Marie Claire “Powerhouse of the Year” and awarded Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser Chair in Australian Studies at Harvard University and visiting Professor Harvard Law School for 2024-2025.
* In 2024, Professor Davis was awarded the 2024 PeaceWomen Award by the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Megan
1975 births
Living people
People from Queensland
Academic staff of the University of New South Wales
Australian officials of the United Nations
Australian women lawyers
Companions of the Order of Australia
Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities
Fellows of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia
Australian indigenous rights activists
21st-century Australian lawyers
University of Queensland alumni