The great Patrick Walsh died on Monday 29 December 2025 in Melbourne after several months fighting aggressive cancer with determination. Pat was an Australian human rights hero, working for decades in and with leading Australian and international human rights organisations and movements. He was a rigorous researcher and a tireless advocate who fought the good fight to the end.
Pat was a leading human rights advocate across many fields but his greatest and largest work related to Timor Leste. He was one of the first in Australia to respond to the Timorese calls for the right to self-determination, and to understand its links with Indonesia’s movements for human rights and democracy. From 1975 he worked with refugee, diaspora, faith, development and human rights non-government organisations and unions to build solidarity, to make Australian governments listen to these voices and live up to their obligations under international law. He refused to give it up as a lost cause. He was supported by the Australian Council for Overseas Aid which made Pat the first Director of its Human Rights Office.
At the same time Pat took on a significant role in working with human rights movements across Asia and the Pacific at a pivotal time – as democracy movements in South Korea, Nepal, the Philippines and Thailand were transforming the region. He was there working with these movements as they adopted the influential Asian NGO Declaration on Human Rights and in Vienna for the UN Second World Conference on Human Rights where the governments of Asia joined others in reaffirming that human rights belong to all people and peoples everywhere – the universality of human rights.
Pat helped to link Australian development and human rights NGOs to Asia through the establishment of the Asia-Pacific Facilitating Team on Human Rights, obtaining funding for its first secretariat in Bangkok. Banned from Indonesia by President Suharto’s government, he was welcomed into the Presidential Palace by President Habibie in 1998.
As soon as the Timorese voted in September 1999 for their independence, Pat was there to help them build their new democracy. He lived in Timor Leste for many years working with the Timorese leadership and at various times with the UN Human Rights Office and, most importantly, with the Timor Leste Reception, Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In fact, he was one of the principal authors of the Commission’s final report, Chega!, and the huge volume of materials that accompanied it. He saw this work as a critical foundation stone for Timor’s democracy, enabling the voices of the victims to be heard and for truths to be told. It is a model that he shared with First Nations leaders in Australia.
Pat worked to ensure that the Chega! report was translated into Bahasa Indonesia and distributed through Indonesia, so that Indonesian people could understand their country’s role in Timor Leste, including the proud role of so many Indonesian democracy and human rights advocates in its struggle for self-determination. He was ceaseless in his determination that knowledge of the past be used to help build a better future – that, while past crimes against humanity and human rights violations may be forgiven, they must not be forgotten. A co-founder of the influential journal Inside Indonesia, Pat was a remarkable builder of bridges between peoples and causes as he continued his advocacy for the cause of human rights and self-determination for West Papua.
No Australian is better known and more respected in Timor Leste from the top political leadership to the ordinary people in villages and towns throughout the country. Pat was deeply proud to have received Timor Leste’s highest civilian honour. While his advocacy for human rights in Timor Leste was often a thorn in the side of successive Australian governments, he also received the Order of Australia in acknowledgement of his unique contribution to human rights. He was well known and highly respected regionally and internationally, as tributes from all over since his death indicate.
Pat began to document his work and life in books that always gave space to the stories of ordinary people. He had begun to write the family history of his Irish descent and growing up on a small dairy farm in Western Victoria. His fine sense of humour and of finding pleasure in the small things in life shines through.
Pat was one of the first members of the Human Rights Council of Australia and he remained associated with the Council for almost 40 years – an advocate by example of the Council’s ground-breaking work promoting a human rights approach to aid. He inspired us and encouraged us in our work. We remember him with affection and gratitude.
Pat’s legacy is evident in the continuing work undertaken by so many people he inspired, in so many countries. We at the Human Rights Council of Australia will remember him by continuing to act on his human rights commitment and his commitment to justice and peace.
We express our profound sympathies to Pat’s immediate family, Annie, Mayra, Suzannah and Patricia, to his extended family and to all his friends.
5 January 2026