Published: 1 June 2007

	Professor Hilary Charlesworth

More than 60 practicing lawyers, members of the judiciary, academics and students attended the latest UQ Law Graduates Association breakfast seminar to hear about the challenges facing nations restoring democracy after conflict.

Leading international academic from the Australian National University, Professor Hilary Charlesworth, presented the seminar entitled Building Justice and Democracy after Conflict at Brisbane’s Royal on the Park Hotel on May 30.

Professor Charlesworth said recent events in East Timor, Iraq and the Solomon Islands suggest that the difficulties faced are partially created by those who are seeking to impose a Western style democracy.

“In the end, the project of democracy-building tells us more about the democracy-builders than the country to which democracy is being brought; it allows us to construct the ‘other’ as chaotic and ourselves as ordered, benevolent and magnanimous.  We can thus deflect scrutiny of the failures of democracy and justice in our own societies.” she said.

Secretary of UQ Law Graduates Association, Dr Nick James, said Professor Charlesworth’s seminar challenged the general assumptions made about Western involvement in democracy building and justice in undeveloped countries.

“Professor Charlesworth impressed us with her intelligent, insightful and confronting observations about the impact and objectives of developed nations in establishing or restoring democracy in areas of conflict,” he said.

“She challenged us to question our assumptions about the universal applicability of Western conceptions of ‘democracy’ and ‘justice’.”

UQ Law Graduates Association holds a number of events throughout the year.  For further information visit http://www.law.uq.edu.au/uqlga.