Gillian Triggs – Law, justice, and the power of public spaces

In this episode of A Third Place, international human rights leader Gillian Triggs reflects on her student days at the University of Melbourne and the spaces that shaped her path from young law student to President of the Australian Human Rights Commission and now Assistant High Commissioner for Protection at the United Nations. Triggs recalls the Baillieu Library as both an academic lifeline and a social hub, and the lecturers who inspired her to see law not just as rules, but as a tool for justice. She also speaks about the stresses and rewards of public life, the importance of civic and community spaces—from trams to libraries—in fostering empathy, and why encounters in everyday places can transform how we see refugees, migrants, and each other.