What’s your passion and how do you want to make a difference in the world?
I’ve always been passionate about upholding people’s human rights and have been working as an international human rights lawyer around the world the last 18 years in Australia, the United Kingdom and Europe, and most recently in Hong Kong China. My work has focused on applying my legal skills in advocacy, policy, and litigation work to advance human rights of everyone, but particularly vulnerable or disadvantaged groups in societies whether it is women, disabled people, ethnic minorities or LGBTI people. My work is focused not only on improving the legislation and policies towards those groups, but also to foster societies where there is better understanding and about human rights issues.
Why is inclusion important to you personally?
When I was at primary school I saw and experienced personally racial and other discrimination, so I know how detrimental discrimination and other abuse can be on a person’s wellbeing. I think those experiences as a child drove me in later life to work on the issues and use my legal skills to make a difference. I’m a firm believer that everyone in society should be treated with dignity, respect and equality in order that they can maximize their potential in life.
How do we create a society that does more than accept difference?
In order to create a society that embraces difference, the key players in society need to provide leadership. Firstly, Governments around the world need to ensure that everyone from a young age at school are educated about what human rights are, and why they are important to everyone’s lives. This includes education about issues of the importance of equality and diversity in society. Secondly, the business sector has an increasingly important role to play in creating working environments where diversity is valued, given that equality and diversity has been shown to often improve performance of companies. Businesses also have a very powerful influence over Government policies so they should use that to advocate for better legislation and policies relating to equality and diversity.
About Peter
Peter is an international human rights lawyer who has working in the field of human law and advocacy for 18 years in Australia, the United Kingdom, Europe, Commonwealth countries, and most recently in Hong Kong China.
Since November 2012, Peter has been working as Legal Counsel at the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) in Hong Kong where he has been leading a number of advocacy and policy projects relating to improving the anti-discrimination legislation and related policies.
Previously for 11 years Peter worked in London United Kingdom in a number of human rights roles including at Amnesty International UK; the Commission for Racial Equality as Principal Litigation Officer and Head of European and International Legal Policy from 2005 to 2008; the Equality and Human Rights Commission as a Senior Lawyer and Director of Legal Policy from 2008 to 2012; and at the Commonwealth Secretariat in 2012 as a human rights consultant on Commonwealth projects.