Cate Sumner

Biography
Publications

Cate Sumner is Director of Law and Development Partners and a Senior Adviser with the ASEAN Australia Counter Trafficking program (ASEAN-ACT) and the Australia Indonesia Partnership for Justice 2 (AIPJ2).

For 25 years, Cate has worked in the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, focusing on access to justice, human rights and judicial reform. Her career spans working with the international law firm Baker & McKenzie in Cairo, the United Nations (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra, and the International Development Law Organisation (IDLO) in their offices in Manila and Sydney. 

In 2019, Cate was awarded a Churchill Trust Fellowship to explore how private finance, philanthropic donors and government can collaborate to provide free legal services for women and children.

Human trafficking: Harnessing technology to help those most vulnerable
Human trafficking: Harnessing technology to help those most vulnerable
Delivering legal services to victims often means overcoming barriers in language, information and distance.
What counts for victims of trafficking?
What counts for victims of trafficking?
Sharing data is key to combatting human rights abuses against vulnerable groups from the ASEAN region.
Courting change for Indonesia’s invisible brides
Courting change for Indonesia’s invisible brides
The country’s marriage statistics obscure a significant rise in unregistered unions involving children and adolescents.
The long wait in Indonesia for a female chief justice in a top court
The long wait in Indonesia for a female chief justice in a top court
Indonesia lags in appointing women to key judicial posts and the gender gap in the region is closing at a glacial pace.
Courting Reform: Indonesia Islamic Courts and Justice for the Poor
Lowy Institute Papers
Courting Reform: Indonesia Islamic Courts and Justice for the Poor
Cate Sumner and Tim Lindsey explore how the Islamic courts in Indonesia have embraced reform within a judicial system notorious for corruption and incompetence, taking the lead in…
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