Gillian Triggs

Australian legal scholar

Gillian Doreen Triggs (born 30 October 1945) is an Australian academic specialising in public international law. In 2019, she was appointed by United Nations Secretary General António Guterres as Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations. In this capacity, she will serve as the Assistant High Commissioner for Protection in the team of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. Triggs was President of the Australian Human Rights Commission (HRC) from 2012 to 2017, and is a former Dean of the Sydney Law School, where she was the Challis Professor of International Law between 2007 and 2012. Prior to that she was a professor at the Melbourne Law School. Triggs was also Acting Race Discrimination Commissioner of the HRC from 30 July 2012 to 19 August 2013, and was the Acting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner.

Triggs attended University High School and the University of Melbourne, where she was awarded "Miss University 1966". She earned a Bachelor of Laws in 1967 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1982. After her admission to the Supreme Court of Victoria as a barrister and solicitor, Triggs worked as a tutor at Monash University. Triggs also earned a Master of Laws from Southern Methodist University in University Park, Texas, a suburb of Dallas in 1972, while working with the Dallas Police Department, serving as Legal Advisory to the Chief of Police on the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In 1987, Triggs joined Mallesons Stephen Jaques, where she worked as a consultant on international law. From 1996 to 2005, Triggs was a full time Professor at Melbourne Law School. Triggs has published papers on various topics of public international law, including World Trade Organization (WTO) disputes resolution, energy and resources law, law of the sea, territorial sovereignty, jurisdiction and immunity, international criminal law, international environmental law and human rights. Triggs is also the author of two editions of International Law: Contemporary Principles and Practices. Triggs was the Director of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law from July 2005 to September 2007. Before taking up her appointment, she was the Director of the Institute for Comparative and International Law at the University of Melbourne, where she held a chair in law. Triggs returned to Australia in 2007, to become the Dean of the University of Sydney Law School and Challis Professor of International Law. She took up this role in October 2007. Triggs was admitted to the Victorian bar, and from 2009 to 2011, she was an honorary member at Sydney barristers' chambers Seven Wentworth Chambers. Triggs is an Honorary Fellow of the College of Law. Gillian Triggs was awarded the 2018 Humanist of the Year. Her memoir, Speaking Up, was published by Melbourne University Press in 2018.

Triggs received significant criticism for her handling of an action involving three Queensland University of Technology (QUT) students who were accused of racial vilification under Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth). One of the students was alleged to have breached Section 18C because of a Facebook post which read: "Just got kicked out of the unsigned Indigenous computer room. QUT stopping segregation with segregation." After this case was dismissed, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called on the commission to "urgently review" the way it manages race hate cases. Tony Morris, the lawyer who represented the students, claimed that Triggs sat on the complaint for 14 months and was to blame for the case making it to court. Triggs said removing "offend" and "insult" and inserting "vilify" would be a strengthening of the laws. Triggs said "it’s true, the students have suffered from this but I cannot concede the Commission did anything wrong". In addition to her native English, Triggs speaks some French.