The Alan Missen Oration - Michael Kirby

Liberty Victoria, with the support of the Alan Missen Foundation, was the proud sponsor of the Alan Missen Oration at the Melbourne Writers Festival on Friday 22 August at the Deakin Edge, Federation Square

Why Australians should be concerned about human rights in North Korea was at the heart of former High Court judge Michael Kirby’s Alan Missen Oration for Liberty Victoria. As chair of a UNHCR inquiry into human rights abuses in North Korea , Michael Kirby was determined to sharply communicate the severe repression of the secretive regime. Denied access to North Korea, the research required a new approach, one that could report accurately on the situation with limited access to firsthand reporting. The result was a picture of a people in crisis. He explained his methods and what he found in this year’s Alan Missen Oration.