Megan Jane Davis is an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

activist and international

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

lawyer. She was the first

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

to sit on a

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

body, and was Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Davis is Pro vice-Chancellor, Indigenous, and

Balnaves Chair in Constitutional Law The Indigenous Law Centre (ILC), formerly the Aboriginal Law Research Unit and Aboriginal Law Centre, is part of the UNSW Faculty of Law, Law Faculty at the University of New South Wales. It develops and coordinates research, teaching and informa ...

at the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

. She is especially known for her work on the ''

Uluru Statement from the Heart The ''Uluru Statement from the Heart'' is a 2017 petition by Australian Aboriginal leaders to change the constitution of Australia to improve the representation of Indigenous Australians. The statement was released on 26 May 2017 by delegates ...

''.

Early life and education

Megan Jane Davis was born in

Monto Monto was the nickname for the one-time red light district in the northeast of Dublin, Ireland. The Monto was roughly the area bounded by Talbot Street, Amiens Street, Gardiner Street and Seán McDermott Street (formerly Gloucester Street) in ...

. Her family moved along the

Queensland Rail Queensland Rail (QR) is a railway operator in Queensland, Australia. Owned by the Queensland Government, it operates local and long-distance passenger services, as well as owning and maintaining approximately 6,600 kilometres of track and relate ...

way. Her ancestry is Aboriginal Australian ( Cobble Cobble, from south-east Queensland) and South Pacific Islander. She was brought up by a

single parent A single parent is a person who has a child or children but does not have a spouse or live-in partner to assist in the upbringing or support of the child. Reasons for becoming a single parent include divorce, break-up, abandonment, becoming wid ...

, and one of her earliest interests was the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...

.UNSW human rights lawyer Professor Megan Davis has been elected Chair of the United Nation's Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
, 22 April 2015, UNSW.edu.au, Retrieved 12 August 2016 She attended the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

, earning a law degree. In this period she met and was mentored by

Jackie Huggins Jacqueline Gail "Jackie" Huggins (born 19 August 1956) is an Aboriginal Australian author, historian, academic and advocate for the rights of Indigenous Australians. She is a Bidjara (Warrego River), Bidjara/Pitjara, Birri Gubba and Juru people ...

, who convinced her to work for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action (FAIRA) in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, which led her to apply to the United Nations Fellowship.

Career

Davis was an international lawyer at the

, where in the period from 1999 until 2004 she helped work on the

Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP or DOTROIP) is a legally non-binding resolution passed by the United Nations in 2007. It delineates and defines the individual and collective rights of Indigenous peoples, including th ...

, including providing legal advice to

ATSIC The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) (1990–2005) was the Australian Government body through which Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders were formally involved in the processes of government affecting ...

Commissioners during the drafting stages. In 2010, she became the first Indigenous Australian woman to be elected to a United Nations body when she was appointed to the

United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII or PFII) is the UN's central coordinating body for matters relating to the concerns and rights of the world's indigenous peoples. There are more than 370 million indigenous peop ...

Megan Davis
womenaustralia.info, Retrieved 11 August 2016 which is based in New York. holding that position from 2011 to 2016.Five questions to Megan Davis: on Aboriginal self-determination
16 May 2014, The Guardian, Retrieved 12 August 2016 She has been a member of the UN

Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), CDH is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The Council has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis. ...

(EMRIP) since 2017, and in July 2021 she was appointed its chair. Davis was on the Australian Government's expert panel on the country's

Indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

in 2011, and was a member of the Prime Minister's

Referendum Council The ''Uluru Statement from the Heart'' is a 2017 petition by Australian Aboriginal leaders to change the constitution of Australia to improve the representation of Indigenous Australians. The statement was released on 26 May 2017 by delegates t ...

from 2015-2017. As a member of the Referendum Council, Davis was instrumental in assisting the development of the ''Uluru Statement From the Heart'', designing the deliberative dialogues and chairing the Council's sub-committee for the First Nations regional Dialogues and the First Nations Constitutional Convention in 2017. Davis was appointed

at the

Indigenous Law Centre The Indigenous Law Centre (ILC), formerly the Aboriginal Law Research Unit and Aboriginal Law Centre, is part of the UNSW Faculty of Law, Law Faculty at the University of New South Wales. It develops and coordinates research, teaching and informa ...

(part of the UNSW law faculty) in 2020, and in addition is Pro Vice-Chancellor, Indigenous, there, as well as a former Director of the Indigenous Law Centre.

Other roles

In 2017, Davis was appointed a Commissioner on the

Australian Rugby League Commission The Australian Rugby League Commission (ARL), formerly the Australian Rugby Football League known as the Australian Rugby League is an Australian rugby league football competition operator. It was founded in 1986 as the Australian Rugby Footbal ...

. In 2020 she was reappointed for another term. Davis has described growing up in a "crazy

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

family", and wanting to "give back to a game that gave so much to me and my family".

Awards and honours

* In October 2018 Professor Davis was named overall winner of ''

The Australian Financial Review ''The Australian Financial Review'' (abbreviated to the ''AFR'') is an Australian business-focused, compact daily newspaper covering the current business and economic affairs of Australia and the world. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New Sou ...

'' 100 Women of Influence award. * Davis was elected Fellow of the

Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) is an independent, non-governmental organisation devoted to the advancement of knowledge and research in the social sciences. It has its origins in the Social Science Research Council of Austr ...

in 2017 and is a Fellow of the

Australian Academy of Law The Australian Academy of Law (AAL) is a permanent, non-government organisation devoted to the advancement of the discipline of law. According to its Constitution, the Australian Academy of Law comprises individuals of exceptional distinction from a ...

. * Davis accepted the

Sydney Peace Prize The Sydney Peace Prize is awarded by the Sydney Peace Foundation, a non profit organisation associated with the University of Sydney. The prize promotes peace with justice and the practice of nonviolence. It aims to encourage public interest and d ...

in 2021, alongside Pat Anderson and

Noel Pearson Noel or Noël may refer to: Christmas * , French for Christmas * Noel is another name for a Christmas carol Places * Noel, Missouri, United States, a city *Noel, Nova Scotia, Canada, a community * 1563 Noël, an asteroid *Mount Noel, Britis ...

, on behalf of the ''Uluru Statement From the Heart''. * Davis is listed on the Te Hononga Pūkenga ("the connection of experts") database of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, New Zealand's Māori Centre of Research Excellence.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Megan 1975 births Living people People from Queensland University of New South Wales faculty Australian officials of the United Nations Australian women lawyers Fellows of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia Australian indigenous rights activists 21st-century Australian lawyers