Edge Rewrite
everything Source code View original
// HTMLRewriter · presentation

This page was redesigned at the edge.

Cloudflare fetched the original article and streamed it through HTMLRewriter to apply an entirely new visual system without rebuilding the source page.

// request.cf · coarse context

A page that knows where it met you.

Only coarse request metadata is shown. This demo does not display or persist visitor IP addresses.

Country
US
Cloudflare location
CMH
Connection
HTTP/2
Language
Not provided

Ray ID: a25e8fc18fec1ef0

Jump to content

// Workers AI · dad joke modeIs Megan Davis a good dancer? Davis to be good.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Megan Davis
BornOctober 1975 Edit this on Wikidata
EducationAustralian National University Edit this on Wikidata
Awards
  • Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (2017)
  • Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (2023)
  • Companion of the Order of Australia (For eminent service to the law and to social justice, to the national and international advocacy of the rights of Indigenous peoples, and to the community., Scientia Professor Megan Jane DAVIS, 2025) Edit this on Wikidata
Websiteresearch.unsw.edu.au/people/professor-megan-jane-davis Edit this on Wikidata
Academic career
Institutions

Megan Jane Davis (born October 1975) is an Australian constitutional lawyer and public law expert who holds the Balnaves Chair in Constitutional Law at UNSW[1] and is the Director of the Indigenous Law Centre, UNSW.[2] She has held the Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser Chair in Australia Studies at Harvard University and Visiting Professor, Harvard Law School.[1][3] Davis specialises in Indigenous peoples and the law, democracy, and the constitutional recognition of First Nations.[1] She is known for her work on the Uluru Statement from the Heart.[4] She designed the Referendum Council’s deliberative process[5] that led to the Statement.  

Davis was a United Nations expert on the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (2011–2016) and UN expert on Indigenous rights on the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) (2017–2022).[citation needed] She was the first Indigenous woman from Australia to be elected via ECOSOC competitive elections to serve on a United Nations body and also served as Rapporteur and Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.[6] Davis also served as deputy chair and Chair of EMRIP.[7]

Davis is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law,[8] the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, and the Australian Academy of the Humanities.[9] She was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in the 2025 Australia Day Honours[10] for her service to law and Indigenous people.

Early life and education

[edit]

Megan Jane Davis[11] was born in October 1975 in Monto. Her family moved along the Queensland Railway. Her ancestry is Aboriginal Australian (Cobble Cobble, from south-east Queensland[12]) and South Pacific Islander.[13]

Davis was brought up by a single mother[14] and one of her earliest interests was the Australian Constitution[14] and the United Nations General Assembly.[15] She attended the University of Queensland, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws in 1999.[16] While studying, she met and was mentored by Jackie Huggins, who convinced her to work for the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action (FAIRA) in Brisbane, which led her to apply to the United Nations Fellowship.[16] She also worked as a Legal Cadet at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.[citation needed]

Career

[edit]

In 1999, Davis became the first Indigenous Australian to be awarded a United Nations Indigenous Fellowship in the United Nations Office for Human Rights, based in Geneva.[17] Davis worked as an international lawyer at the United Nations, where from 1999 until 2004 she helped draft the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and provided legal advice to ATSIC Commissioners during the drafting stages.[16][18]

In 2010, Davis was elected by the UN Economic and Social Council as an expert member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues,[19] making her the first Indigenous Australian woman elected to a United Nations Body.[13] She served two terms as an expert member from 2011 to 2016, having been elected for a second term in 2013. Davis was also elected as Chair of the Permanent Forum in 2015.[citation needed]

In 2017, Davis was elected by the UN Human Rights Council to the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. She was appointed for a second term from 2019-2022, and was appointed as Chair in 2021.[20] Davis held portfolios including Administration of Justice and Gender and Women and was the focal point for UN Women and UN AIDS.[21] Davis was the Rapporteur of the UN Expert Group Meeting on an Optional Protocol to the UNDRIP as well as the author of a UNPFII study on a supervisory mechanism for UNDRIP (2014).[21] Davis was the UN Rapporteur for the 2012 International Expert Group Meeting on Combating violence against indigenous women and girls: article 22 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which produced the first major UN report on Indigenous women,[22] and was the UN Rapporteur for the International EGM on Indigenous Youth.[23]

Davis was on the Australian Government's Expert Panel on the Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the Constitution in 2011,[1] and was a member of the Prime Minister's Referendum Council from 2015 to 2017.[12][24] 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.[2]

Davis served on the Referendum Working Group, Referendum Engagement Group, and the Attorney General’s Constitutional Expert Group from 2022–2023 that advised on the Voice to Parliament referendum in 2023.[25] She is Co-chair of the Uluru Dialogue – the group of First Nations leaders who lead the Uluru Statement from the Heart work.[citation needed]  

Davis has been the Director of the Indigenous Law Centre (part of the UNSW law faculty) since 2006.[11] She was appointed UNSW Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous in 2017[11][26] and Balnaves Chair in Constitutional Law in 2020.[2][27] She is currently the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Society at UNSW.[1]

Davis was a Commissioner on the QLD Commission of Inquiry into Youth Detention Centres in 2016 alongside co-Commissioner Kathryn McMillan KC.[28] She was also the Chair and author of ‘Family is Culture’, an inquiry into NSW Aboriginal Children in Out of Home care (2017–2019).[29] In 2023, she wrote "Voice of Reason: On Recognition and Renewal" which was published by Quarterly Essay.[30]

Other roles

[edit]

In 2017, Davis was appointed a Commissioner on the Australian Rugby League Commission.[31] In 2020, she was reappointed for another term.[32] Davis has described growing up in a "crazy rugby league family", and wanting to "give back to a game that gave so much to me and my family".[31] Davis is also a Director on the North Queensland Cowboys Community Foundation Board, a Commissioner for the South Australian Rugby League Commission, and formerly a director on the Western Australia Rugby League Commission.[11]

Awards and honours

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Professor Megan Davis". UNSW Sites. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 "Megan Davis". Uluru Statement from the Heart. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  3. ↑ "Megan Davis appointed visiting professor at Harvard". UNSW Sites. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
  4. ↑ "Home". Uluru Statement from the Heart. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
  5. ↑ "Final report of the Referendum Council". Trove. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
  6. ↑ "Megan Davis - Constitutional and International lawyer | National Library of Australia (NLA)". www.library.gov.au. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
  7. ↑ "Law Professor elected as Chair of United Nations Indigenous rights body". UNSW Sites. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
  8. ↑ "Australian Academy of Law - Member public profile". academyoflaw.org.au. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
  9. ↑ "Megan Davis elected to Australian Academy of the Humanities". UNSW Sites. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
  10. ↑ "Scientia Professor Megan Jane DAVIS". Australian Honours Search Facility. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "Professor Megan Jane Davis". UNSW Sydney. Retrieved 23 July 2021.
  12. 1 2 Randall Abate; Elizabeth Ann Kronk (1 January 2013). Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples: The Search for Legal Remedies. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-78100-180-6.
  13. 1 2 Five questions to Megan Davis: on Aboriginal self-determination, 16 May 2014, The Guardian, Retrieved 12 August 2016
  14. 1 2 "Voice From the Heart | Megan Davis". www.abc.net.au. 30 June 2023. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
  15. ↑ UNSW human rights lawyer Professor Megan Davis has been elected Chair of the United Nation's Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Archived 8 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine, 22 April 2015, UNSW.edu.au, Retrieved 12 August 2016
  16. 1 2 3 "Interview series – Because of her, we can". Inside UNSW. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  17. ↑ "Megan Davis - Constitutional and International lawyer | National Library of Australia (NLA)". www.library.gov.au. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  18. ↑ Coulson, Britney (21 July 2021). "Professor Megan Davis elected chair of prestigious United Nations group". National Indigenous Times. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  19. ↑ Megan Davis, womenaustralia.info, Retrieved 11 August 2016
  20. ↑ NIT (28 July 2021). "Professor Megan Davis elected chair of prestigious United Nations group". National Indigenous Times. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  21. 1 2 Martine (30 August 2023). "Professor Megan Davis". Engaging Women. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
  22. ↑ "Combating violence against indigenous women and girls | United Nations For Indigenous Peoples". www.un.org. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
  23. ↑ "Professor Megan Davis chairs UN Expert Group meeting on Violence Against Women | Indigenous Law Centre". www.ilc.unsw.edu.au. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
  24. ↑ "Professor Megan Davis". National Rugby League. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  25. ↑ "Professor Megan Davis says Voice referendum working group has made 'significant progress'". www.abc.net.au. 2 February 2023. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
  26. ↑ "Professor Megan Davis Has Been Appointed As UNSW's First Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous". Indigenous Law Bulletin. 8 (28): 3. 2017.
  27. ↑ "UNSW Professor named Chair in Constitutional Law". Inside UNSW. 2 June 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  28. ↑ Support, Department of Youth Justice and Victim (27 November 2024). "About the youth detention review". Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
  29. ↑ "Family is Culture review". Office of the Children's Guardian. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
  30. ↑ "Voice of Reason: On recognition and renewal". Quarterly Essay. No. 90. June 2023. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  31. 1 2 Halloran, Jessica (1 August 2020). "For the love of the game: Megan Davis gives back through ARL Commission". Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  32. ↑ "Kate Jones joins Australian Rugby League Commission". National Rugby League. 10 November 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  33. ↑ Agenda, Women's (29 April 2013). "Inspiring mentor to work with UN on Indigenous issues". Women's Agenda. Retrieved 23 January 2025.
  34. ↑ "Professor Megan Davis". alumni.uq.edu.au. 30 October 2015. Retrieved 23 January 2025.
  35. ↑ "Academy Fellow: Professor Megan Davis FASSA, FAAL". Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  36. ↑ "The 10 most influential people in Australian culture in 2017". Australian Financial Review. 4 October 2017. Retrieved 23 January 2025.
  37. ↑ Patten, Sally (17 October 2018). "Women of Influence 2018 winner fights for recognition of Indigenous Australians". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
  38. ↑ "Professor Megan Davis | Australian National University". www.anu.edu.au. 21 March 2018. Retrieved 23 January 2025.
  39. ↑ "Meet UQ's 2021 Honorary Award recipients". stories.uq.edu.au. Retrieved 23 January 2025.
  40. ↑ "'Historic offering of peace': Uluru Statement from the Heart wins 2021 Sydney Peace Prize". Sydney Peace Foundation. 28 May 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  41. ↑ "Australia's top five powerbrokers in the law for 2022". Australian Financial Review. 29 September 2022. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
  42. ↑ "Fellow Profile – Megan Davis". Australian Academy of the Humanities. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
  43. ↑ claire, marie (30 November 2023). "Meet Marie Claire's 2023 Women Of The Year". marie claire. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
  44. ↑ "Uluṟu Statement leaders awarded Australia PeaceWomen Awards". UNSW Sites. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
  45. ↑ Brown, Andrew (26 January 2025). "Professor Megan Davis receives Australia's highest civilian honour". National Indigenous Times. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Megan_Davis&oldid=1358017916"