Tony Ellis nominated for Amnesty International Aotearoa NZ’s Human Rights Defender Award

HUMAN RIGHTS lawyer Tony Ellis has been nominated for Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand’s (AIANZ) annual Human Rights Defender Award.

Now in its second year, the Human Rights Defender Award celebrates the achievement of one person who has made an outstanding contribution to the defence, promotion, and/or advancement of human rights in the Asia-Pacific region.

Sixteen nominations have been received for the award, spanning a diverse selection of grass roots to global activists from around Asia, the Pacific, and New Zealand. Ellis is one of three lawyers put forward for the award.

“Lawyers are so often on the frontline of human rights protection, and in many countries are persecuted for doing their job. We are pleased to see recognition that lawyers in our region are as crucial for the defence of human rights as they are in other parts of the world,” said Patrick Holmes, AIANZ’s Chief Executive Officer.

An outspoken, Wellington-based barrister, Ellis has not been afraid to represent unpopular cases, some on a pro bono basis. His cases have covered the spectrum of criminal appeals, judicial review, prisoner’s rights, intellectual disability and mental health, habeas corpus, extradition, immigration, refugees, and other breaches of human rights. He was Chairperson of the New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties for over eight years until the end of 2008.

The recipient of the Human Rights Defender Award will be announced at a reception at the Auckland office of the Human Rights Commission on International Human Rights Day – 10 December – to celebrate the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Other nominees for the Award include: Contemporary artist Shahriar Asdollah-Zadeh; Singapore opposition leader Dr Chee Soon Juan; No Right Turn blogger Idiot/Savant; Fijian human rights lawyer Imrana Jalal; Defence lawyer for the ‘Waihopai Three’ Michael Knowles; Maire Leadbetter of the Indonesian Human Rights Committee; TVNZ’s Sunday correspondent Janet McIntyre; Burmese activist and refugee Naing Ko Ko; NZ peace and disarmament campaigner Alyn Ware; West Papuan activist Yan Christian Warinussy; and AIANZ local activists Dolores Flynn-Edge and Elena Wrelton.

NZLawyer extra, 3 December 2010, Edition 16