School of Law
University of New England
2020 Kirby Seminar series
Via Webinar Thursday 12 November 2020 at 12 noon AEDT
If interested and to obtain a link, please register for this Kirby Seminar at:
https://une-au.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_T3BRbjA1SQmfd0kMx2BMIQ
Associate Professor Karen O’Connell
“Equally healthy? Making anti-discrimination laws that work for post-pandemic Australia”
In this Kirby seminar, Associate Professor Karen O’Connell will present the argument that Australian equality laws mostly create individual remedies for isolated incidents of discrimination in defined areas of public life. This has meant a focus on employment-based discrimination cases at the expense of addressing broader issues of health and environmental harms. The past year has highlighted these gaps and flaws in Australia’s system of anti-discrimination law, as affected by global health and environmental crises along with disturbing accounts of growing social and economic inequality. Using examples from sex discrimination law, this seminar considers how we might integrate the lessons learned from these contemporary disruptions to better address inequality in the future.
Karen O’Connell is an Associate Professor in the University of Technology Sydney Law School. She is an expert in discrimination law, particularly sex and disability discrimination, and biotechnologies of the body, neuroscience and genetics. She is experienced in law reform, policy development and managing large research projects. With Professor Isabel Karpin she holds an Australia Research Council grant on “The Legal Regulation of Behaviour as a Disability” (2015-2018).
Prior to joining UTS as a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow she worked in human rights law and policy at the Australian Human Rights Commission. In a number of senior roles, she worked on national inquires and major reports into pregnancy discrimination, immigration detention, paid maternity leave, family responsibilities discrimination and age discrimination. She co-wrote submissions on key human rights cases and law reforms and produced national guidelines on sexual harassment and pregnancy discrimination. Dr O’Connell completed her masters and doctoral degrees at Columbia University in New York.
