Victorian Bar pro bono award winners for 2019

The Human Rights Law Centre couldn’t do what we do without the generous support of our pro bono partners. The Victorian Bar pro bono awards celebrate the significant pro bono contribution of Victorian barristers.

Congratulations to Evelyn Tadros, who won the Ron Castan AM QC Award for her pro bono representation of the plaintiff in the ground-breaking human rights case of Matsoukatidious v Yarra Ranges Council [2017] VSC 61, where the Court confirmed that courts have a responsibility under the Charter of Human Rights to ensure that self-represented litigants can participate effectively in legal proceedings; and for her unstinting work representing asylum seekers on Nauru.

We’d also like to congratulate the counsel team for the Barwon Youth Detention matter - Brian Walters AM QC, Peter Morrissey QC, Dr Ian Freckelton QC, Matthew Albert, Sarala Fitzgerald, Dr Adam McBeth and Claire Harris QC, who won the Public Interest/Justice Innovation Award for their work, instructed by the Human Rights Law Centre, on behalf of a number of detained children, concerning a challenge to the decision of the Victorian Government to gazette part of the maximum security Barwon Prison as a youth justice centre and to transfer children there.