The Kimberley Kitching Human Rights Award is given in recognition of Senator Kimberley Kitching's strong and abiding human-rights advocacy, and presented at the ALP National Conference.
The recipient of this award is a member of the Australian Labor Party who has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to the advancement of human rights in Australia or globally.
Janelle Saffin (pictured below) is the second recipient of the Award, conferred in Adelaide at the 50th Australian Labor Party National Conference, in July 2026.
For more than four decades, from local communities in regional New South Wales to some of the great human rights struggles of our time, Janelle - a member of the NSW Branch of the ALP - has devoted her working life to a simple proposition: that rights are not given, they are won.
"Human rights, they start in our own backyard, but they don't stop there," Janelle said on receiving the Award. "And from what I know about Kimberley, she subscribed to that."
When the people of Timor-Leste struggled for their independence, Janelle stood with them, working alongside Timorese leaders and the international solidarity movement. And when democracy advocates of Myanmar fought for constitutional government, for more than two decades through the Burma Lawyers Council and through her service as chair of the Australia-Myanmar Parliamentary Group, Janelle stood with them.
The inaugural Kimberley Kitching Human Rights Award was presented on 18 August 2023, to Victorian Labor Party member Tony Clark at the 49th ALP National Conference.
Tony has spent his life challenging organisations, businesses and the Labor Party itself to be more inclusive and more accessible for people with disability. His decades of work culminated in the founding of Labor Enabled Victoria, where – alongside Annie Payne – Tony advocated the need and appetite for a disability action plan for the Party. In addition to this significant legacy, Tony has worked tirelessly in the broader community for greater access for people with disability to education, employment and economic opportunities, and healthcare.
Read more:
Janelle Saffin receives Kimberley Kitching Human Rights Award
Inaugural Kimberley Kitching Human Rights Award winner announced
