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Frances Voon

Conference convener and Executive Manager, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law

Frances Voon joined the Kaldor Centre as its inaugural Executive Manager in 2015. Since then she has provided strategic leadership to the world’s first centre for refugee law. The Centre aims to transform public and policy discussion about forced migration, by injecting evidence and principle into a divisive debate. Her efforts to foster a positive alternative narrative about how we can respond to refugees are shown in the Kaldor Centre’s Principles for Australian Refugee Policy and its award-winning multimedia project Temporary. Voon has led the Centre’s commitments to improving diversity and inclusion over the long term, including spearheading a mentoring program for refugee scholars. Frances serves on the Board of the Refugee Advice and Casework Service (RACS), which provides free legal support to people seeking asylum in Australia. A former John Monash Scholar at the University of Oxford, Frances has also worked in Bangladesh for the World Food Programme, in Jordan for Jesuit Refugee Service, and in both South Sudan and Geneva for the UN Refugee Agency.