David Manne

David joined the RILC – the largest provider of free legal assistance to disadvantaged migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in Australia – in January 2001. He sat on the Board of the Refugee Council of Australia for 7 years, and currently sits on the Victorian Foundation for the Survivors of Torture Ethics Committee, the Human Rights Law Resource Centre Board, as well as a wide range of other committees in the immigration area, including peak Immigration Department fora, including the DIAC-NGO Humanitarian Dialogue and the Onshore Protection Consultative Group.

In November 2006, he was awarded the annual Law Institute of Victoria Paul Baker Prize for Administrative and Human Rights Law, as well as the President’s Award in the Community Lawyers’ category. In 2008 (and subsequently), he was voted by his peers as one of Australia’s leading immigration lawyers in the inaugural Australian edition of the international Best Lawyers publication, and was selected as a participant for the 2020 Summit. In 2008, David was shortlisted by the Australian Human Rights Commission for a Human Rights Award, and received an Award from the Victorian Multicultural Commission for services to the community in multicultural affairs.

He was selected as a non-government organisation member of the Australian delegation to the 2008 UNHCR Executive Committee meeting in Geneva, and was invited by UNHCR Headquarters to participate and present at an international roundtable on detention in Geneva. In 2010, he was invited to attend the UN High Commissioner for Refugees ‘Dialogue on Protection Challenges’, held in Geneva, and was recently appointed to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Advisory Board of Eminent Persons. David also headed RILC’s legal team in the recent successful High Court challenge of the Government’s offshore processing regime in the case of Plaintiff M61 v The Commonwealth & Ors.