As we reported earlier, our Chairman, Andrew MacLeod has received a Law Society (England and Wales) ‘Legal Hero’ Award for 2024
The award was given for his work as recently covered in an Australian Broadcasting Corporation Four Corners program, ‘Sex Tourism: My Father’s Secret’ which can be viewed on ABC iView here.
Below is the introduction he was given at the award and his acceptance speech.
Introduction of Andrew MacLeod
It is my privilege to introduce our fourth Legal Hero of the afternoon. While he is unable to join us in person today, his extraordinary contributions reach across continents, leaving an unforgettable mark on the lives of the most vulnerable. This Legal Hero is someone whose career has been defined by an unyielding commitment to justice, particularly for children who have suffered unimaginable abuses.
Our next Legal Hero of 2024 is Andrew MacLeod, a man who has dedicated his life to tackling the harrowing issue of overseas sexual abuse.
Through his pioneering efforts, he has secured parentage declarations and support orders, assembling a team of pro bono lawyers who have fundamentally changed the lives of affected children.
His work not only brings justice to those who need it most but also creates systemic deterrents to prevent future abuses.
Andrew’s career spans a remarkable range of roles and achievements.
He is:
- the Chairman Emeritus of British-based Griffin Law;
- a Non-Executive Director of the Arabian Leopard Fund; and,
- and the founding Director of the child protection charity, Hear Their Cries.
His leadership extends to academia, where he serves as a Vice Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellow at Deakin University. He has also been appointed to global advisory roles, including with the World Economic Forum and King’s College London.
Andrew’s humanitarian work is particularly distinguished.
As Chief of Operations for the UN Emergency Coordination Centre in Pakistan, he led one of the most successful disaster responses in history following the 2005 Kashmir earthquake.
His efforts in the Balkans and Rwanda with the International Committee of the Red Cross resulted in a measurable decrease in civilian casualties – thanks to his innovative training in the Law of Armed Conflict.
With advanced degrees in law and international relations, Andrew’s expertise has been sought after by corporations, governments, and NGOs worldwide.
His research into the scale of sexual exploitation by aid workers and his work to ensure justice for victims through the application of international law have set new standards in the field of humanitarian law and child protection.
In addition to his professional achievements, Andrew is a decorated veteran, an author, and a philanthropist.
His book, A Life Half Done, offers a compelling account of his experiences in some of the world’s most challenging environments, drawing lessons that resonate far beyond the realm of disaster zones and into the broader human experience.
He has brought about fundamental changes not only in the lives of those he has directly helped as well as in the broader fight against the abuse of children worldwide.
For his relentless pursuit of justice and his profound impact on humanitarian law and child protection, it is with great honour that we recognise Andrew MacLeod as our fourth Legal Hero of the evening.
Though he cannot be here with us here today, we celebrate his contributions and extend our deepest gratitude for the work he continues to do on behalf of the world’s most vulnerable.
Acceptance speech: Andrew MacLeod
The Law Society, guests and friends, it is a deep honour to be chosen as a 2024 ‘Legal Hero’. I must start by apologising for not being in attendance. I am out of the country following up some of the work for which I have been awarded.
Assisting children who have been abandoned has been one of the greatest privileges of my life.
To take children in absolute poverty, to find their fathers and then responsiblise the father, sometimes with full acceptance and consent, and sometimes with the full force of the father’s home legal jurisdiction, fundamentally changes these children’s lives for the better.
To give these children access to food, an education and often nationality rights – all paid for by the person who consciously had unprotected sex with a vulnerable and impoverished woman, took advantage of that poverty and thought they had got away with it, gives me a deep sense of faith that justice can be done.
It reminds me of the Tom Hanks character in the film Philadelphia who, when asked why he loved the law, responded saying that, ‘Sometimes, not often, the law lets you play a role in getting justice done’.
We as lawyers can, when we chose, play a role in justice being done. But it is not easy. It often requires a willingness to stand up against powers, authorities and sometimes, colleagues.
It requires the type of courage Robert Kennedy spoke of in his ‘Ripple of Hope’ speech, calling on people to stand up and strike out against injustice, while risking the censure of your colleagues, wrath of society and the disapproval of your fellows.
While burning bridges unnecessarily is foolhardy, sometimes in the pursuit of justice the light of a burning bridge can and must guide your way.
The two main innovations we have achieved in this work has been to normalise commencement of international paternity claims in the habitual domicile of the father rather than the habitual domicile of the child, and to have Genetic Genealogy accepted as proof of parentage even without the father’s direct DNA.
This second point is important. The advances of DNA technology mean we can now prove who the father is, even if we do not directly have the father’s DNA.
In conclusion and with thanks, I would like to leave you with three messages:
- If you ever come across a child who does not know who their parents are, mother or father, this DNA technology can be used to find them. It helps where fathers have abandoned children, and it helps where authorities falsified adoption files;
- This DNA technology is now accepted by the courts; and,
- While I can help a few handfuls of children, and all of us may help a few hundred, what we really need is governments to step up and DNA test children born of abuse where their nationals are likely to be the father, be they sex tourists in Philippines, Thailand or Cambodia, British Soldiers in Kenya or Belize, or UN staff and aid workers in Sierra Leone, Congo, Haiti, and so many other places in the world.
If we achieved this, we would gain both retrospective justice, and preventative justice.
I thank you for both the award and the honour.
Andrew MacLeod – 9/9/2024
