Gleeson is 'One to Watch' in international affairs list

Kaldor Centre Senior Research Associate Madeline Gleeson has been named one of 2020's Young Women to Watch in International Affairs. Young Australians International Affairs released the 2020 list on International Woman’s Day. It recognises women’s achievements in traditionally male-dominated fields within international affairs. 

Gleeson was noted for her broad work on international human rights and refugee law, with a focus on the law of State responsibility, extraterritorial human rights obligations, offshore processing on Nauru and Manus Island, and refugee protection in the Asia-Pacific region. She leads the Kaldor Centre research projects on offshore processing and regional protection for refugees. 

With extensive experience working with forcibly displaced people around the world, Gleeson has conducted research on asylum seekers and refugees, statelessness, human trafficking, labour migration and 'land grabbing' with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Cambodia, and worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) in Geneva, Switzerland. She also has human rights experience in South Africa and Indonesia, and previously practiced as a solicitor in Australia.

Gleeson convenes the national Legal Centres Teleconference for refugee and migration law matters, and the Asia-Pacific Research Group within the Kaldor Centre’s Emerging Scholars Network. Her first book, Offshore: Behind the Wire in Manus and Nauru, won the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction, was shortlisted for several other prizes. 

Check out the full list of Young Women to Watch in International Affairs.