Elizabeth Evatt

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Elizabeth Andreas Evatt AC (1933 – ), Australian lawyer and judge, was the first Chief Judge of the Family Court of Australia, and the first female judge of an Australian federal court.

Evatt was born in 1933, the daughter of the barrister Clive Evatt QC, and the niece of Justice of the High Court of Australia H.V. Evatt.

Evatt was educated at the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney in Croydon, and went on to study law at the University of Sydney, becoming the first female student to win the University's Medal for Law when she graduated in March 1955. Later that year she was admitted to the New South Wales Bar, entitling her to practice as a barrister. She travelled to the United Kingdom, where in 1958 she was admitted to the bar at the Inner Temple in London. Evatt also studied at Harvard Law School, graduating with a Master of Laws degree. From 1968 to 1973, Evatt worked at the England and Wales Law Commission under Lord Scarman.

On 15 December 1972, Evatt was appointed as the first female Deputy President of the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission. In 1974 she chaired the Royal Commission on Human Relationships, producing recommendations which ultimately led to the introduction of no-fault divorce, and the single ground of irreconcilable differences evidenced by twelve months separation, into Australian family law in the Family Law Act 1975.

When the Family Court of Australia was created under that same Act in 1975, Evatt was appointed as its inaugural Chief Judge. In 1984, Evatt was appointed as a member of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. She later chaired the Committee, from 1989 to 1991, and remained a member until 1992. In 1988, Evatt left the Family Court. Following her departure from the bench, she was appointed President of the Australian Law Reform Commission, a position she held until 1993. Also in 1988, Evatt was made Chancellor of the University of Newcastle, until 1994.

Evatt was the first Australian to be elected to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, in 1992, serving as a member from 1993 to 2000. From 1995 to 1998, she was made a Commissioner of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. In 1998 she was appointed as a judge of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal. Evatt was elected as a Commissioner of the International Committee of Jurists in April 2003.

Evatt has been an outspoken advocate of issues relating to human rights in Australia, particularly women's rights. In 2004, in a 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.^[1] She has also been critical of the Howard Liberal government's anti-terrorism legislation, 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."^[2]

Evatt was made an Officer of the Order of Australia on 14 June 1982, and was granted the status of Companion of the Order of Australia, Australia's highest civil honour, at the Queen's Birthday honours on 12 June 1995.

[edit] References

^ Evatt, Elizabeth (3 December 2004). "Falling short on women's rights: mis-matches between SDA and the international regime". Proceedings of the Human Rights 2004: The Year in Review Conference, Melbourne: Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, Monash University. Retrieved on 2006-08-11.
^ Michael Pelly, Tony Stephens and Marian Wilkinson. "Former leaders call for debate", Sydney Morning Herald, October 25 2005. Retrieved on 2006-08-11.