|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
More About Me
|
Publications
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
| Qualifications |
BA LLB(Melb.), LLM JSD(Columbia), Barrister & Solicitor VIC |
| Biography |
Penelope Mathew (B.A., LL.B., Melbourne, LL.M., J.S.D., Columbia). Penelope Mathew's research interests are in international law, human rights law and refugee law. She has published widely in the areas of refugee law and international human rights law, in journals such as the American Journal of International Law, the International Journal of Refugee Law and the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal. She is a past editor-in-chief of the Australian Yearbook of International Law (2005 – 07) and one of the authors of International Law: Cases and Materials (Oxford, 2005). Pene’s particular interest is refugee law and she has worked with and for refugees in many capacities. In 2001, she advised the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ regional office for Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific concerning the problems with Australian legislation underpinning the so-called ‘Pacific Solution’. She was also a participant in the third expert panel on refugee law organised by UNHCR during 2001 as part of the ‘global consultations’ on the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. Pene has written numerous submissions to parliamentary inquiries, particularly those relating to changes to Australia’s immigration laws and their impact on refugees and asylum-seekers. Her evidence to the Australian Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Committee concerning the Migration Amendment (Designated Unauthorised Arrivals) Bill 2006, a bill which sought to extend aspects of the Pacific Solution, was cited extensively by the Committee when it recommended that the bill should not become law. Pene has also provided academic opinions to lawyers working on refugee cases before Australian courts, including the test cases for East Timorese asylum-seekers. She is a non-judicial member of the International Association of Refugee Law Judges and a member of its human rights working group. She was one of the faculty members, along with Professor James Hathaway and Rodger Haines QC, for the advanced refugee law workshop organised by the International Association of Refugee Law Judges in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2002. While maintaining a base in academia, Pene has practised as a human rights and/or refugee lawyer. Since the early 1990s, she has worked as a researcher, caseworker or adviser on a paid and unpaid basis with non-government organisations. One of her first and most enjoyable jobs was a three month stint as a volunteer lawyer with the Jesuit Refugee Service in the refugee camps in Hong Kong. Most recently, Pene has been the Human Rights Legal and Policy Adviser to the Human Rights Commission in the Australian Capital Territory. During her time at the Human Rights Commission, Pene conducted the Human Rights Audit of the ACT’s Correctional Facilities – a year-long empirical project which documented and assessed practises in the ACT’s remand centres against international human rights standards for the treatment of prisoners. |
| Scholarly Interests |
Current Research Interests: Anti-terrorism law's impact on human rights; international refugee law. |
| Appointments |
August 2008, Visiting Professor and Interim Director Refugee and Asylum Law Program, University of Michigan Law School |
| |
Teaching: International Law, Feminist and Critical Legal Theory, International Law of Human Rights, International Refugee Law.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
