Join us for an extraordinary evening discussing human rights and acknowledging that August 2022 marks 100 years since Queensland abolished the death penalty: the first jurisdiction in the British Empire to achieve this major reform, decades before any other Australian state.

As a seminal collection of the best writings against capital punishment, The Penalty Is Death: State power, law, and justice edited by Barry Jones draws on a wide range of sources, historical and contemporary, and presents an overview of the legal, political and philosophical arguments for and against capital punishment, as well as firsthand accounts of the reality of executions and their aftermaths. Capital punishment continues to make headlines and shatter lives across the world, despite its abolition in this country.

Writer, teacher, lawyer, social activist, polymath, former politician and national treasure Barry Jones examines the work that still needs to be done, the lessons from early activism and what capital punishment says about the State and the individual. He will be in conversation with Melbourne broadcaster, anthropologist and writer Sally Warhaft.

This event is free to attend but bookings are essential.

Please book here.