Tenants Victoria announces the Honourable Kevin Bell as inaugural Patron
Tenants Victoria is delighted to announce Professor the Honourable Kevin Bell AM KC as its inaugural Patron.
Professor Bell, a distinguished jurist and human rights advocate, has a longstanding connection with Tenants Victoria. He was the first paid lawyer at the organisation, then called the Tenants Union of Victoria, from 1979 to 1981. He received the award of Member of the Order of Australia in 2017 for his ‘significant service to the law and to the judiciary, to native title and human rights, and the community’.
Judith Dickson, Chair of the Board of Tenants Victoria, said: ‘On behalf of the Board, we are delighted that Professor Bell has accepted our invitation to be our first Patron. In that role Professor Bell will bring his considerable professional expertise and commitment to human rights to advance and support the work of Tenants Victoria. We look forward to his contribution as Tenants Victoria celebrates our 50th anniversary this year.’
Professor Bell said: ‘As Patron I look forward to advancing and supporting the work of Tenants Victoria in its advocacy for renters and for housing as a human right, in particular in its work addressing housing insecurity and homelessness.’
Professor Bell is a former senior jurist and advocate with extensive experience in the law, including commercial law, criminal law, common law, public law and human rights, including Indigenous rights.
He is a former Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria, President of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, Commissioner of the Yoorrook Justice Commission and Co-Chair of the Steering Committee to develop the National Mental Health Commission Stigma and Discrimination Reduction Strategy.
He was a professor in the area of international human rights law in the Faculty of Law at Monash University and Director of the faculty’s Castan Centre for Human Rights Law. He is now an Adjunct Professor in the faculty.
Professor Bell is also a Victorian Patron for the national Justice Reform Initiative, which aims to break the cycle of prison incarceration.