Liberty Victoria Voltaire Human Rights Awards 2022
Description
JOIN US TO CELEBRATE THE WINNERS OF LIBERTY VICTORIA’S ANNUAL VOLTAIRE HUMAN RIGHTS AWARDS.
Liberty Victoria is proud to present the Voltaire Award Dinner 2022, a celebration of free speech and of Liberty Victoria's continued work to defend and extend civil liberties and human rights throughout Australia.
- Voltaire Human Rights Award - Brenda Appleton
- Young Voltaire Human Rights Award - Sitarah Mohammadi and Sajjad Askary
- Empty Chair Human Rights Award - Mehdi Ali
Liberty has been working since 1936 to extend and defend human rights and freedom.
Each year Liberty Victoria holds its Voltaire Dinner to celebrate free speech.
Thanks for supporting the evening. You are helping to:
- Secure people’s equal rights and oppose any abuse or excessive power by the state.
- Influence public debate and government policy on human rights.
- Support specific cases in defence of civil liberties.
Our annual Voltaire Awards Dinner provides us with an opportunity not only to celebrate successes for human rights, but to promote the challenges we continue to face.
THE AWARDS
Voltaire Award - Brenda Appleton
The Voltaire Human Rights Award honours a person who has made an outstanding contribution to human rights, free speech and/or civil liberties, with particular emphasis on progressing freedom, respect, equality, dignity and action.
Brenda Appleton OAM has been a fearless advocate for trans and gender-diverse (TGD) people in Victoria and more broadly in Australia. Her life story has been one of incredible resilience and personal empowerment.
Brenda was heavily involved in working with the Victorian Government, opposition and crossbenches for the successful introduction of birth certificate legislation that enabled TGD people to access birth certificates which reflected their identity.
As a spokesperson for Transgender Victoria, Brenda has been vital in her leadership, advocacy and training on TGD and LGBTIQ+ issues. Her effective leadership within the community was recognised when she was appointed Co-Chair of the whole-of-Victorian Government LGBTI Taskforce, making her the first trans person in Australia to be named chair of a ministerial advisory committee.
Brenda has also chaired the trans and gender-diverse subcommittee of the former government’s Health and Wellbeing Ministerial Advisory Committee. In this role she formulated the health and wellbeing background paper that was instrumental to the development of the health policy for trans and gender-diverse Victorians. Brenda has also served on the Victorian Mental Health Taskforce and is currently a member of the Senior Victorians Advisory Group. She was chair or co-chair of Transgender Victoria for 17 years.
Brenda was also instrumental in Corrections Victoria adopting a new Commissioner's Requirement for the treatment of TGD people. Brenda is also an ambassador for the Pinnacle Foundation and BreastScreen Victoria. Recently, she co-authored a journal article based on original field research on prejudices faced by TGD people in the criminal justice system.
In a political arena where we have seen LGBTIQ+ people become political footballs, and in particular over recent times young and vulnerable TGD people, we are very proud to award the Voltaire Human Rights Award to Brenda.
Young Voltaire Award - Sitarah Mohammadi and Sajjad Askary
The Young Voltaire Human Rights Award honours a person who is no older than 30 at the date of their nomination who has made an outstanding contribution to human rights, free speech and/or civil liberties.
Sitarah Mohammadi and Sajjad Askary are the joint recipients of this award. Sitarah and Sajjad arrived in Australia as Hazara refugees from Afghanistan. They have received the award due to their incredible advocacy for the human rights of Hazara people, and other highly vulnerable and marginalised people in Afghanistan. Over the past year they have published articles in major newspapers in Australia and globally, as well as advocating for increased action by Australia to support people from Afghanistan as members of the Action for Afghanistan campaign.
Sitarah Mohammadi was eight years old when she first learnt to read and write. Born in Afghanistan during the previous Taliban regime, she was told that women and girls were second-class citizens, that her people, the Hazaras, had no rights and did not need an education.
It was only when Sitarah escaped to Australia that she was given the chance to go to school. This ultimately led to a wide range of academic achievements including spending 2019 as a Provost Scholar at the University of Oxford. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Human Rights and is currently undertaking her Juris Doctor degree at Monash University.
Sajjad Askary arrived in Australia by boat seeking asylum in 2012. Sajjad holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations and is also a Juris Doctor student at Monash University. He is an op-ed contributor for the Guardian Australia, Al Jazeera English, and other news outlets.
Both Sitarah and Sajjad have become exceptional advocates for the people of Afghanistan. They are worthy recipients of the Young Voltaire Human Rights Award.
The Empty Chair Award - Mehdi Ali
Established in 2016, the Voltaire Empty Chair Award is presented to a person who is worthy to receive the Voltaire or Young Voltaire Human Rights Award but cannot be present to receive the award due to the consequences of their exercise of or advocacy for human rights, free speech and/or civil liberties.
The winner of the 2022 Voltaire Empty Chair Award is Mehdi Ali, a refugee from Ahvaz, Iran who had been held in detention by Australia since 2013 including at the Park Hotel in Melbourne. He was afforded protection and resettled in the United States this year.
Mehdi has been a powerful and tireless advocate for refugees and people seeking asylum in detention, including onshore detention. A member of Iran’s persecuted Ahwazi Arab minority, Mehdi was a child passenger on a boat intercepted by Australian authorities in 2013. He was sent to Australia’s detention centres on Christmas Island and then Nauru, an experience that he has described as “a complete trauma”.
Late in 2014 Mehdi’s claim for refugee protection was accepted.
Mehdi was brought to Australia under the short-lived Medevac laws in 2019 and then spent more than two years in detention.
Mehdi fought for and won the right to run a twitter account whilst detained at the Park Hotel. Through his tireless activism he brought attention to the Australian detention system from within with dignity, kindness and optimism, an issue which received international attention during the Djokovic case.
We are honoured that Mehdi has accepted the 2022 Liberty Victoria Empty Chair award.
WHY THE ‘VOLTAIRE’ AWARD?
Voltaire was a French writer and philosopher famous for his advocacy of freedom of speech. He was an outspoken advocate of civil liberties, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the 18th Century.
The values of Liberty Victoria resonate with those of Voltaire. This event is given annually to the person or organisation making an outstanding contribution to free speech.
Previous Voltaire Human Rights Award Winners
- 2021 The Children of Tanya Day (Advocates for changes to conditions in police custody)
- 2020 Dylan Alcott (Advocate for people with disabilities and sports champion)
- 2019 Debbie Kilroy (Activist and founder of 'Sisters Inside'
- 2018: Magda Szubanski (Actor and advocate for same sex marriage.)
- 2017: Gillian Triggs (President of the Australian Human Rights Commission until July 2017)
- 2016: Waleed Aly (media presenter, author and academic)
- 2015: The ‘three brothers’ – Peter Greste, Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy (Al Jazeera journalists)
- 2014: Yu Shu Lipski (interpreter and whistleblower)
- 2013: Arnold Zable (writer, novelist and refugee advocate)
- 2012: David Marr (journalis