Elizabeth Andreas Evatt (born 11 November 1933), an eminent

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n reformist lawyer and

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

who sat on numerous national and international tribunals and commissions, was the first Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia, the first female judge of an Australian federal court, and the first Australian to be elected to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

Early years and background

Evatt was born in 1933, the daughter of the

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

Clive Evatt , granddaughter of Harry Andreas of Leuralla, and the niece of H. V. Evatt. Educated at the Presbyterian Ladies' College in Pymble, Sydney, Evatt studied law at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

, as the youngest law student ever accepted, and became the first female student to win the University's Medal for Law, graduating in March 1955. Admitted as at

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

in 1955, Evatt won a scholarship to

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

where she was awarded a

LLM A large language model (LLM) is a language model trained with Self-supervised learning, self-supervised machine learning on a vast amount of text, designed for natural language processing tasks, especially Natural language generation, language g ...

in 1956 and was admitted to the bar at the

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. From 1968 to 1973, Evatt worked at the England and Wales Law Commission under Lord Scarman.

Judicial appointments

Australia

In December 1972, Evatt was appointed as the first female Deputy President of the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission and retained this position until 1989. Between 1974 and 1977, Evatt chaired the Royal Commission on Human Relationships, producing recommendations which ultimately led to the enactment of the Family Law Act 1975 where no-fault divorce and the single ground of irreconcilable differences evidenced by twelve months separation were introduced into Australian family law. The Act also established the Family Court of Australia, and Evatt was appointed as its inaugural Chief Justice holding this position from 1976 until 1988. In 1988 Evatt was appointed President of the Australian Law Reform Commission, a position she held until 1993. From 1995 to 1998, she served as a part-time Commissioner of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.

International

Appointed as a member of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in 1984, Evatt later chaired the committee, from 1989 to 1991, and remained a member until 1992. Evatt was the first Australian to be elected to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in 1992, serving as a member from 1993 to 2000. Between 1998 and 2007, Evatt served two consecutive, five-year terms as a judge of a tribunal of the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

that determines staffing disputes. Evatt was elected as a Commissioner of the International Committee of Jurists in April 2003.

Non-judicial appointments

In 1988 Evatt was made

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

of the University of Newcastle, holding this post until 1994. In 1995 Evatt was commissioned by

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

Herron, the Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, to review the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984. Her extensive report, ''Review of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984'' ('the Evatt Review') was presented in August 1996 and paved the way for legislative reform to a complex and controversial area of law.

Human rights advocate

Evatt has been an outspoken advocate of issues relating to human rights in Australia, particularly women's rights. In a 2004 speech to mark the twentieth anniversary of the '' Sex Discrimination Act 1984'', Evatt critiqued the Act and other laws relating to women's rights in Australia, in terms of its inadequacies in satisfying Australia's obligations under the

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is an international treaty adopted in 1979 by the United Nations General Assembly. Described as an international bill of rights for women, it was instituted ...

. She was also critical of the then

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Liberal government's

anti-terrorism legislation Anti-terrorism legislation are laws aimed at fighting terrorism. They usually, if not always, follow specific bombings or assassinations. Anti-terrorism legislation usually includes specific amendments allowing the state to bypass its own l ...

, particularly provisions relating to control orders and preventive detention, saying that "These laws are striking at the most fundamental freedoms in our democracy in a most draconian way." Evatt was a signatory to the

Yogyakarta Principles The Yogyakarta Principles is a document about human rights in the areas of sexual orientation and gender identity that was published as the outcome of an international meeting of human rights groups in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in November 2006. T ...

in November 2006.

Awards and honours

Evatt was made an Officer of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

on 14 June 1982, in recognition of services to the law, and was granted the status of Companion of the Order of Australia, at the Queen's Birthday honours on 12 June 1995. The latter citation was awarded "in recognition of service to the law, social justice and to the promotion of human rights worldwide, particularly in the areas of equal opportunity and anti-discrimination legislation and practice". In 1985 an

honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

of LL.D was conferred on Evatt by the

at a special ceremony which celebrated the centenary of the first graduations by women at the university. In 1994, the Flinders University of South Australia conferred the same award on Evatt. In 2007 the Blue Mountains Community Legal Centre changed its name to the Elizabeth Evatt Community Legal Centre. The Centre provides free legal advice to clients in the surrounding region, and Evatt serves as patron of the centre. Evatt is a Life Member of the Evatt Foundation, an organisation established as a memorial to her uncle, Dr H. V. Evatt, with the aim of advancing the highest ideals of the labour movement, such as equality, participation, social justice and human rights. Evatt served as Vice-President of the Foundation between 1982 and 1987. She was added to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2001.

Notable published works

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References

External links

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Selected parts of the review
{{DEFAULTSORT:Evatt, Elizabeth 1933 births Judges of the Family Court of Australia Australian women judges Harvard Law School alumni United Nations Human Rights Committee members Companions of the Order of Australia Australian royal commissioners Living people Lawyers from Sydney Australian officials of the United Nations Women chief justices People educated at Pymble Ladies' College Chancellors of the University of Newcastle (Australia) First women chief justices