Susan Harris Rimmer

Dr Susan Harris Rimmer (BA[Hons]/LLB[Hons] UQ, SJD ANU) is a Professor in the Griffith University Law School.

On 27 February 2024, Professor Susan Harris Rimmer was appointed by the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence (the Attorney-General) to undertake an independent review of the Human Rights Act 2019 (HR Act). Professor Harris Rimmer conducted consultation with various stakeholders as part of the review process and provided a report titled 'Placing People at the Heart of Policy' for tabling in 2025.

Sue leads the Climate Justice theme of the Griffith Climate Action Beacon. She is the founder of the EveryGen coalition (www.everygen.online) which seeks to amplify the voices of current and future generations and highlight the long-term impacts of today’s policy decisions.

Susan was named a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs in 2024. She was the 2021 winner of the Fulbright Scholarship in Australian-United States Alliance Studies (funded by DFAT) and was hosted by Georgetown University in Washington DC in 2022. She was named a Top Innovator by Uplink World Economic Forum for the Climate Justice Challenge in 2022 for the creation of the Climate Justice Observatory (www.climatejusticeobservatory.com.au). She won the Bertha Lutz Prize for research on women in diplomacy awarded by the Centre for International Studies & Diplomacy and The Diplomatic Studies Section (DPLST) of the International Studies Association (ISA) in 2021. Susan provided the independent Human Rights Assessment for the successful FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2032 Bid in 2020 and was the Human Rights Adviser to GOLDOC for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Susan has won over $2 million in research funding. Her Australian Research Council Future Fellow project (2015-2020) was called 'Trading' Women's Rights in Transitions: Designing Diplomatic Interventions in Afghanistan and Myanmar. She also held a 2020-2023 ARC Discovery grant as lead CI with Professor Michele Foster and A/Prof Kylie Burns ($276,968) for the project Adjudicating Rights for a Sustainable National Disability Insurance Scheme.

She often acts as a policy adviser to government and produces policy papers. Susan was selected as an expert for the official Australian delegation to the 58th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York in March 2014. She has provided policy advice on the UNSC, G20, IORA and MIKTA. Sue delivers training to the Diplomatic Academy and National Intelligence Community, and guest lectures at the Australian War College, including its two flagship courses: the Australian Command and Staff Course and the Defence and Strategic Studies Course.

She was part of the Think20 process for Australia's host year of the Group of 20 Leaders' Summit in Brisbane 2014, the Turkish Presidency in 2015 and the Chinese Presidency in 2016. She attended the St Petersburg Summit in 2013 and the Brisbane Summit in 2014. Sue was one of the two Australian representatives to the W20 in Turkey, China and Germany. She worked as a Research Associate with the Chatham House Gender and Growth Initiative on this work, producing the Bellagio Declaration on Gender and the G20.

Sue was awarded the Vincent Fairfax Ethics in Leadership Award in 2002, selected as participant in the 2020 Summit 2008 by then Prime Minister Rudd, and awarded the Future Summit Leadership Award, 2008, by the Australian Davos Connection (part of the World Economic Forum). In 2014 she was named one of the Westpac and Australian Financial Review's 100 Women of Influence in the Global category. She was named one of 100 global gender experts by Apolitical 2018, and one of 20 Queensland Voices Female Leaders in 2019.

She was the Director of the Griffith University Policy Innovation Hub (from July 2020 - December 2023). She was previously the Deputy Head of School (Research) in the Griffith Law School and prior to joining Griffith was the Director of Studies at the ANU Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy. Prior to academia, Sue was previously the Advocacy lead at the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID), She has also worked for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the National Council of Churches and the Parliamentary Library. She currently holds voluntary board positions as President of United Nations Association Australia QLD and Foundations for Tomorrow.