Monique Hurley joined the Human Rights Law Centre in 2018 and is a principal lawyer with a dedicated police and prison accountability focus. She works in solidarity with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and organisations to call out racial injustice and demand a fairer legal system. She also works alongside people with lived experience of incarceration to advocate for governments to close prisons and to hold governments to account for the mistreatment of people behind bars.

Since joining the Human Rights Law Centre, Monique acted as instructing solicitor for the family of Yorta Yorta woman Aunty Tanya Day in the coronial inquest into her death in police custody, which led to the Victorian Government finally decriminalising public intoxication in 2023. She is also part of the legal team assisting the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency in their intervention in the coronial inquest into the police-shooting death of Warlpiri and Luritja teenager Kumanjayi Walker.

Prior to the Human Rights Law Centre, Monique was a lawyer at WEstjustice, where she was embedded in a school to provide legal services and education to young people as part of an innovative education-justice project. Previously, Monique worked at the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency where she provided a wide range of civil law advice and representation to clients living in remote communities. Monique got her start as a lawyer working in the litigation practice at Clayton Utz and has also worked as an Associate to a Judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria.

Monique has a Bachelor of Arts/Law from Monash University and a Master of Laws from Columbia University where she studied as a Fulbright scholar, but credits much of her knowledge to the clients and communities she has had the privilege of working alongside over the years.

Outside work, Monique sits on the Board of Vacro and on the Tasmanian National Preventive Mechanism Civil Society Advisory Council. She is a former Board member of Youthlaw and Deputy Chair of Liberty Victoria’s Rights Advocacy Project.