Voltaire Award Dinner 2017
Description
2017 Voltaire Award Night
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.
By supporting this 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.
We would absolutely love you to join us to enable us to continue our important work.
Date and time: Friday 21 July 2017. Pre-dinner drinks commence at 6.30pm.
Location: Sofitel Melbourne on Collins, 25 Collins Street, Melbourne.
Dress code: Cocktail.
Bookings Now Closed
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The Awards
Voltaire Award - Professor Gillian Triggs
This award honours a person or group for an outstanding contribution to free speech in the past year. It celebrates those who speak out, write, campaign, expose through whistle-blowing or stand against authoritarianism. Often the award winners have gone beyond the call of duty or office and refused to be cowed or silenced.
This year Liberty Victoria honours Professor Gillian Triggs, the outgoing President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, for her fearless work in pursuit of people’s rights, and her courage and persistence under extraordinary pressure.
Young Voltaire Award - Georgie Stone
This award, presented for the first time in 2017, goes to a person aged 30 or under. This year’s winner is Georgie Stone.
At just 10 years old, Georgie was the youngest person in Australia to be granted permission by a court to take hormone blockers, the first stage of medical treatment for transgender children.
In standing up for her rights, Georgie has succeeded in a landmark case that means other transgender children do not have to undertake a complex and intimidating legal process to access hormone treatment.
Now 17 years old, Georgie's visibility and advocacy for the medical and educational rights of transgender children and adolescents has helped highlight these issues and change the national conversation.
The Empty Chair Award - Eaten Fish
Established last year, this award goes to an outstanding contributor to free speech who is unable to accept it in person due to the consequences of their exercise of, or advocacy for free speech.
This year’s recipient is Eaten Fish, the prize-winning cartoonist and Iranian asylum seeker held on Manus Island for almost four years.
Master of Ceremonies - Cal Wilson
We are delighted to announce that Cal Wilson will be our Master of Ceremonies at the 2017 Voltaire Award Dinner. Cal, a perennial favourite on television shows such as 'Spicks and Specks', 'Good News Week', 'Thank God You're Here' and 'Whose Line is it Anyway', is one of our most popular comedians.
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.
Recent Voltaire Award Recipients
- 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 (journalist)
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Bookings Closed
Gillian Triggs takes out free speech award press release