Our Commonwealth, Our Future

Speaker

The Hon. Michael Kirby AC CMG is an Australian jurist and academic who served as the former Justice of the High Court of Australia from 1996 to 2009. 

Prior to his appointment to the High Court, Justice Kirby held many legal roles, notably: Deputy President of the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission (1975-83); Chairman of the Australian Law Reform Commission (1975-84); Judge of the Federal Court of Australia (1983-4); President of the New South Wales Court of Appeal (1984-96); and President of the Court of Appeal of Solomon Islands (1995-96). 

In 1982 he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) for his services to Law. In 1991, he was awarded the Human Rights Medal, along with receiving Australia’s highest civil honour when he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC). He was named Laurette of the UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education in 1998, and co-winner of the Gruber Justice Prize in 2010. In 2011 he received the inaugural Australian Privacy Medal.

Justice Kirby has undertaken many international activities for the United Nations, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the OECD and the Global Fund Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He was also a member of the Eminent Persons Group that was tasked with advising on potential reform within the Commonwealth. 

Justice Kirby continues to be active in international human rights; in May 2013 he was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to lead an inquiry into human rights abuses in North Korea.

Sir Anand Satyanand is a Wellington-based New Zealander of Indian grand-parentage – with family links with Fiji – from where his parents migrated to New Zealand. He was educated in Auckland and became, as time progressed, a lawyer, judge and ombudsman, each for a decade or so. He then served as his country’s 19th Governor-General from 2006 until 2011. Alongside formal roles, he has maintained many interests to do with the Commonwealth, for example teaching for some years in a Commonwealth-funded programme developed in the late 1990s for people newly appointed to Ombudsman office. He was then elected chair of the Commonwealth Foundation, the civil society encouragement arm of the Commonwealth, for two terms each of two years from 2012 until 2016. He has since worked on Commonwealth activities to do with Election oversight – for example in Papua New Guinea in 2017.

Speaker

Darrion M. Narine was born in Trinidad and Tobago but considers himself to be a global citizen. He is a social development specialist, a social entrepreneur and a professional performing artiste. He is also a communications and public relations specialist, hosting workshops and one on one training sessions in effective communication, leadership and public speaking especially for young people. Darrion was appointed as one of the Commonwealth Foundation’s  Civil Society Advisory Governors in 2023.

Speaker

Shomy Hasan Chowdhury is a multi-award-winning Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) activist from Bangladesh. Shomy is the Co-Founder of global youth-led org Awareness 360 and also a Global Changemakers Fellow. She has addressed keynotes and inspired millions across 5 continents, also receiving many recognitions for her social work of over a decade, notably the President’s Volunteer Service Award (Gold) from President Barack Obama, the Putra Icon Award, and the Princess Diana Legacy Award.

Most recently, she has been named a Forbes 30 Under 30 and highlighted as the Featured Honoree for Social Impact. She is also the first Bangladeshi citizen to sit on the 2021 Diana Legacy Award Judging Panel alongside Princess Diana’s brother Lord Spencer, and many esteemed figures.