NIGHT FALLS CONFERENCE

March 9, 2024 RMIT

Fighting for Julian’s freedom embodies so much more than compassion
for a brave man’s suffering.

It is a clarion call to assert and defend the inalienable rights of each human being;
to speak truthfully demanding justice and hold governments accountable for their actions;
to uphold the principles of civilised conduct in international relations;
and to strive for a just and peaceful world.

These are the aspirations and concerns which this conference explored and advanced.

Thank you to all who attended in person and online.

Photo gallery of the event is available below.

Featuring

The event featured:

OPENING ADDRESS

Craig Mokhiber is an international lawyer, activist, and specialist in human rights law, policy, and methodology who has spent four decades in the international human rights movement, including more than thirty years at the United Nations. He is the former Director of the New York Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, held senior UN positions in Geneva, New York and in the field, and undertook human rights missions to dozens of countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Latin America. He has served as the UN’s Senior Human Rights Advisor in Palestine, and in Afghanistan, led the team of human rights specialists attached to the High Level Mission on Darfur, headed the Rule of Law and Democracy Unit, and served as Chief of the Economic and Social Issues Section, and Chief of the Development and Economic and Social Issues Branch at OHCHR Headquarters. He was for five years the Chairman of the UN Task Force for Action Two (a global initiative to advance national human rights protection systems), and later Chaired the UN Democracy Fund consultative group, the UN Working Group on Leadership, and the UN Consultative Group on Inequalities, and the Steering Committee of the UN Human Rights Mainstreaming Fund. He served on the UN Gender Task Team (2023), and led several initiatives aimed at integrating human rights into the work of the UN itself. Craig Mokhiber has lectured and taught human rights, has authored several publications on human rights themes, and has served on the Secretariats of the World Conference on Human Rights (1993), the Commission on Human Rights (1995), the Working Group on the Right to Development (2001), and the World Summit (2005). He represented the UN human rights office in the LDC-IV Conference in Istanbul in 2011, the UN working group on the human rights of older persons since 2012, Rio+20 in 2012, the UN Sustainable Development Summit in 2015, the UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants in 2016, and the UN Conference on Migration in 2018. While on leave from the UN in 1999, he led a global study on human rights and rule of law reforms, on behalf of the International Council on Human Rights Policy. Before joining the UN, he worked as an NGO activist, a human rights advocate, and a lawyer in private practice.

MODERATOR

Mary Kostakidis is a journalist and political commentator. As Chair of the Sydney Peace Foundation in 2011, she presented Julian Assange with the Sydney Peace Medal, with Emeritus Prof Stuart Rees. Mary spent several days at the Ecuadorian Embassy in 2013 and during Julian Assange’s Extradition Hearings she reported proceedings live on Twitter. She presented SBS World News for two decades after serving as a member of the management team that set up the new television service, and was later appointed to the the Rudd government’s National Human Rights Consultation Committee which recommended a Human Rights Act for Australia.

Yanis Varoufakis leads MeRA25 in Greece and is co-founder of the paneuropean movement DiEM25 as well as the Progressive International. An academic economist who served as Greece’s Finance Minister in 2015, Varoufakis is the author of best-selling books including TECHNOFEUDALISM: What killed capitalism (Penguin 2023), ANOTHER NOW (Penguin 2020), ADULTS IN THE ROOM (Penguin 2017), TALKING TO MY DAUGHER (Penguin 2017), AND THE WEAK SUFFER WHAT THEY MUST? (Penguin 2016), THE GLOBAL MINOTAUR (Zed Books 2011)

Dr. Emma Shortis is Senior Researcher in the International & Security Affairs Program at The Australia Institute. Emma is historian and writer, focused on the history and politics of the United States and its role in the world. In a conversation often dominated by the same voices, Emma offers a fresh perspective on international relations grounded in moral questions about how we might imagine a post-American future. Emma’s first book, Our Exceptional Friend: Australia’s Fatal Alliance with the United States, was published in 2021. She writes regularly for Australian and international outlets, and appears regularly on Australian radio and television.

Constantine Pakavakis of PEN Melbourne’s Writers For Peace, advocates for Julian Assange’s freedom and opposes the hawkish, exorbitant, AUKUS nuclear submarine deal. A peace activist during the Vietnam War, he trained as a meditation teacher in India and later became a primary school teacher, teaching in four inner city schools, with eleven years in the Principal Class, and a year at Scienceworks. As a peace educator, he promoted student wellbeing and inclusivity, contributing to state and federal curriculum publications. A video he produced called Solar Solution won the 1999 Ford "One Planet" Environment Award. Con recently had an anti-war novel published; Earthrunner and the War of Water was coauthored with his daughter Simone.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a WikiLeaks senatorial candidate for Victoria with Julian Assange in 2013, a Commonwealth Scholar at Cambridge University, a contributing editor to CounterPunch, and a columnist for The Mandarin. He has been writing extensively on the publishing efforts of WikiLeaks, covering the vital role played by the organisation, and Assange, in exposing abuses of power. He has also written extensively about US efforts to extradite Assange and the dangers posed by the indictment.

Joseph Camilleri OAM is Emeritus Professor at La Trobe University in Melbourne, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, convener of Conversation at the Crossroads, and a convenor of SHAPE (Saving Humanity and Planet Earth). Joseph has authored or edited over 30 books including The End of Sovereignty? and Worlds in Transition: Evolving Governance Across a Stressed Planet, both co-authored with Jim Falk. His research has focussed on security studies, international political economy, the foreign policies of the great powers, the international relations of the Asia-Pacific region, and the philosophy, method and practice of dialogue. He has lectured around the world and he provides advice to many government and community organisations. Joseph is a recipient of the Victorian Premier’s Award, and the Order of Australia Medal.

Anne Orford is Melbourne Laureate Professor and Michael D Kirby Chair of International Law at Melbourne Law School, and Visiting Professor of Law and John Harvey Gregory Lecturer on World Organization at Harvard Law School. She researches and teaches on international law, international dispute settlement, international economic law, climate change, and geopolitics. Her latest book, International Law and the Politics of History (Cambridge University Press, 2021), was awarded the 2022 European Society of International Law Monograph Prize. She has been appointed as the Olof Palme Visiting Professor at Stockholm University for 2024, to work on the securitization of climate change.

Dr. Ruth Mitchell is a Sydney-based neurosurgeon, currently working in the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network. She has been a passionate advocate for social justice since her childhood in Peru. Growing up amid civil war, a conflict fuelled by political and economic injustice, she learned from her parents that strong people do not turn away from difficult situations.“If there is injustice, you have to do something about it,” says Dr. Mitchell. “Conflict is a deep structural problem, and if you want it to end, then everyone must become involved and commit to change,” she adds. Dr. Mitchell joined the foundation group of ICAN in Melbourne during 2006. Beyond her work with ICAN, Ruth is currently the first woman Chair of the Board of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. Dr. Mitchell received the 2019 John Corboy Medal from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons for her advocacy for diversity and inclusion in surgery. She was awarded the Flinders University 2022 Convocation Medal for her outstanding contributions to the global community through humanitarian services and activism as a member of ICAN.

John Noble Shipton born 09/09/1944.
“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts”
John is the father of imprisoned Australian WikiLeaks publisher, Julian Assange, a retired builder, activist and featured in the award-winning film Ithaka: a fight to free Julian Assange (produced by his son, Gabriel Shipton).

Michael West Media is an independent media publisher covering the rising power of corporations over democracy. It is non-partisan, does not take advertising and is funded by readers. MWM investigations focus on anything in politics or business that is public interest. These include whistleblowers and the law, and big business, particularly multinational tax-avoiders, financial markets and the banking and energy sectors. They are best known for highly independent coverage of things not covered properly by msm.

Alastair Crooke is Director of Conflicts Forum, a small geo-political and geo-financial consultancy. He was formerly advisor on Middle East issues to Javier Solana, the EU Foreign Policy Chief. He was also a staff member of Senator George Mitchell’s Fact Finding Committee that inquired into the causes of the Intifada (2000-2001) and an adviser to the International Quartet. He initiated a number of ceasefires in the Occupied Territories on behalf of the European Union and has 35 years experience of working with Islamist movements. He is author of Resistance: The Essence of the Islamist Revolution (2009) and is a regular media commentator on politics and geo-financial issues.

Greg Barns SC is an adviser to the Australian Assange Campaign and has been working on the case since 2012. He is a barrister practising in the areas of criminal law, human rights and administrative law, and is based in Hobart. Greg ran the 1999 Republic Referendum campaign and prior to that was a political staffer for a decade. He is the author of four books on Australian politics, the latest being Rise of the Right: The War on Australia’s Liberal Values (Hardie Grant 2019).