President
& Commissioners
President, Australian Human Rights Commission
The Hon. Catherine Branson QC
The Hon. Catherine Branson was appointed President of the Australian Human Rights Commission on 7 August 2008 and commenced her five year term on 14 October 2008.
At the time of her appointment, she was a judge of the Federal Court of Australia, a position she had held since 1994. The jurisdiction of the Federal Court includes jurisdiction to hear and determine complaints alleging unlawful discrimination under Commonwealth anti-discrimination laws.
Justice Branson was the inaugural convenor of the Federal Court’s Equality and the Law Committee, which was created in 1997. She was also the inaugural convenor of the Court’s Human Rights Panel for New South Wales.
At the time of her appointment to the Federal Court, Ms Branson was a member of the Board of Examiners of the Supreme Court of South Australia, a council member of the University of South Australia and a Trustee of the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust. She had earlier been Deputy Chair of the Adelaide Medical Centre for Women and Children and a member of the National Women’s Advisory Council.
Ms Branson is a past President of the Australian Institute for Judicial Administration and a former member of the Board of Management of IDLO (a governmental organisation based in Rome enjoying observer status at the United Nations). She is a member of the International Association of Judges and the International Association of Refugee Law Judges (and was until recently convenor of the association’s Human Rights Nexus Working Party).
Prior to her appointment as a judge, she practised as a barrister at the Adelaide Bar in South Australia, principally in the areas of administrative law, including discrimination law, and commercial law. She was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1992.
Between 1984-89, she was Crown Solicitor of South Australia and the CEO of the South Australian Attorney-General’s Department.
Ms Branson holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Adelaide.
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Last updated 1 July, 2009
