Professor Paula Gerber, Deputy Director of Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, Monash University, will share her insights into how the assessment of LGBTIQ asylum seekers favours gay men over lesbian and bi women. She will identify how the tools used by the Australian Government to determine whether a person is being persecuted on the basis of their sexual orientation, make it difficult, if not impossible, for same-sex attracted women to be assessed as being genuine refugees.

The talk will be introduced by Meg Clark, from the Canberra Refugee Action Committee, who will provide a short update on the current situation for LGBTIQ+ refugees on Manus Island and Nauru in particular. 

Professor Paula Gerber has been an academic in the Monash University Law Faculty since 2004. As a Professor, Paula researches, teaches and performs leadership roles across the university, the Law Faculty and the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law. Professor Gerber is an internationally renowned legal scholar with expertise in two distinct areas of research; international human rights law and construction law. She did once manage to find a point of intersection where she could fuse these two disparate areas of interest, namely, disabled access to buildings. However, generally her two speciality fields have little in common, except that she is passionate about both of them.

Join us for a dinner with fellow (LGBTIQ+) refugee advocates as part of the Canberra Spring Out Festival.

Dinner will be at the Asian Cafe at AUD 30,- for concession and AUD 35,- for full price, and will include a multi-course Asian style buffet. Tickets can be purchased online.