Megan Davis

Megan Jane Davis (born October 1975) is a Scientia Professor, international human rights lawyer and constitutional law expert. She is currently the Harvard University Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser Chair in Australia Studies and Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School.

She holds the Balnaves Chair in Constitutional Law at UNSW and is the Director of the Indigenous Law Centre, UNSW.

Davis was a United Nations expert on the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (2011-2016) and UN expert on Indigenous rights on the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) (2017-2022).

She was the first Indigenous woman from Australia to be elected via ECOSOC competitive elections to serve on a United Nations body and also served as Rapporteur and Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Davis also served as deputy chair and Chair of EMRIP.

During her two terms Prof Davis held portfolios including Administration of Justice and Gender and Women and was the focal point for UN Women and UN AIDS. Megan was the Rapporteur of the UN Expert Group Meeting on an Optional Protocol to the UNDRIP as well as the author of a UNPFII study on a supervisory mechanism for UNDRIP (2014). Megan was the UN Rapporteur for the 2012 International Expert Group Meeting on Combating violence against indigenous women and girls: article 22 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which produced the first major UN report on Indigenous women, and was the UN Rapporteur for the International EGM on Indigenous Youth.

Professor Davis specialises in Indigenous peoples and the law, democracy, and the constitutional recognition of First Nations. She is especially known for her work on the ''Uluru Statement from the Heart''. She designed the Referendum Council’s deliberative process that led to the Uluru Statement from the Heart and has been a leading expert on the recognition of First Nations peoples for two decades.  

Professor Davis is a Sydney Peace Prize Laureate, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, and the Australian Academy of the Humanities. She is an Acting Commissioner of the New South Wales Land and Environment Court.

Davis was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in the 2025 Australia Day Honours. Provided by Wikipedia