Associate ProfessorTania Penovic

Associate Professor Penovic has published extensively on the impact of laws, policies and practices on the realisation of human rights, including the rights of asylum seekers and refugees, First Nations peoples and LGBTIQ+ people. She is an expert on gender equality and has published extensively on gender-based discrimination and reproductive rights.  Her research has explored the means of advancing access to justice, rights and remedies and has explored the intersection between human rights and other areas of law, such as the law of tort and has been awarded for its economic and social impact. 

Associate Professor Penovic's research is supplemented by her service and contribution to human rights advicacy and law reform. She ia research stream co-covenor for the Centre for Law as Protection and an Executive Management Committee member and Senior Co-Chair of Women and Girls’ Rights for Australian Lawyers for Human Rights. She is an affiliated academic member of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, where she served for a decade as Deputy Director and was inaugural Research Convenor in Gender and Sexuality. 

Associate Professor Penovic has provided human rights training and capacity-building for judges and public authorities in Australia and internationally. She has provided numerous submissions and expert testimony to parliamentary and law reform committees and her work has been cited in parliaments and by courts including the High Court of Australia and United Kingdom Supreme Court. 

Projects

• Evaluation of the Justice-Based Impacts of Public Intoxication reform, Chief Investigator in a team led by Professor Kyllie Cripps (Monash University), Department of Justice and Community Safety 2023-2025.
• Buying Back the Prison, E.G. Whitlam Reserach Fellowship 2024.   
• Country Expert for Australia, International Reproduction Policy Database, 'Varieties of Reproduction Regimes' research project, WZB Berlin Social Science Centre, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin fur Sozialforschung gGmbH.
• A Newnham, G Grant, K Wallwork, T Penovic and J Weinberg, Developing the Evidence Base on Underpayment Recovery and Civil Justice. Victoria Law Foundation Knowledge Grant, $50,000, 2021.
• T Penovic, J Trounson and E Munro-Harrison, Indigenous Group of Learning. RE Ross Trust, $90,000, 2018-2021.
• T Penovic, Advancing Women's Research Success Grant, Monash University $11,000, 2019.
• Technical advisor, course designer and trainer, Capacity Building for Vietnam National University, Coffey International, $489,685, (Federal-government funded Aus4Skills program) 2018-2019.
• T Penovic, J Trounson and E Munro-Harrison, Indigenous Group of Learning. Bennelong Foundation, $61,490, 2017-2018.
• Presenter, Human Rights training for in-house lawyers, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2013-2016.
• Trainer, Rehabilitation Assistance Facility-Iraq, training for Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights, 2010-2012.
• Trainer, Judicial College of Victoria, training under the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic) 2007.