Human Rights Law Centre staff news

Since joining the Human Rights Law Centre, Daniel Webb has tirelessly fought for the rights of refugees and people seeking asylum. Now, after seven years, he is taking a year-long break from his role to work on government transparency and anti-corruption initiatives in the Pacific region with Transparency International.

Daniel has been the driving force behind some of the Human Rights Law Centre’s most important work including High Court action which has prevented over 500 people, including close to 200 children, from being returned to serious harm on Nauru and Manus and the nationwide #LetThemStay movement. He has travelled to Manus Island three times and has been strong, persuasive national voice for a more compassionate refugee policy.

In 2018, Daniel’s team launched a sustained campaign and major UN complaint to reunite refugee families cruelly separated across Manus, Nauru and Australia. All but two families have now been reunited. The team has also worked with partners to run legal action which has secured urgent transfers to Australia for over 130 people, including 45 children. We have won every single case we filed, and this work continues to provide a lifeline for acutely unwell people still stranded on Nauru and Manus.

The Human Rights Law Centre’s refugee rights team, Freya Dinshaw, David Burke and Arif Hussein will continue this work and have been joined by Katie Robertson, who will lead the team for the next twelve months.

Katie has extensive experience advocating for the rights of refugees and people seeking asylum in the legal, policy and political sectors. She joins us from Maurice Blackburn’s social justice team where her key cases include the Baby Ferouz matter which involved successfully preventing the transfer of over 100 Australian born asylum seekers and their families to Nauru, ultimately securing their release from immigration detention into the Australian community.

Katie also acted for a refugee injured in the Manus Island riots of February 2014 and more recently, a six year old asylum seeker child who suffered harm while detained on Christmas Island. She also has previous experience as the Humanitarian Advocacy Lead at Oxfam Australia where she provided strategic oversight of Oxfam's humanitarian influencing agenda regarding migration. As a senior political adviser to a federal Senator, Katie provided strategic advice regarding parliamentary business and public policy on immigration and Australia's treatment of people seeking asylum and refugees.  

We’re thrilled to have Katie join the Human Rights Law Centre and excited to watch Daniel’s work in the Pacific.