Nyadol Nyuon
Human rights and refugee advocate
Victorian Nominee Australia of the Year 2022
Lawyer, writer, speaker, volunteer, mother of two and former refugee, Nyadol is an advocate for human rights, multiculturalism, refugees, and those seeking asylum. She has worked and volunteered extensively in these areas with a range of organisations.
Born in a refugee camp in Ethiopia and raised in Kakuma Refugee camp, Kenya. In 2005, at the age of eighteen, her family escaped the Sudanese Civil War and Nyadol arrived in Melbourne where she completed a law degree at the University of Melbourne.
In 2018, after speaking publicly on race and human rights issues – including exaggerated media coverage of so-called African gangs and COVID-19 law-breakers – she was the target of racist online harassment and abuse.
Despite this, Nyadol has continued to be a powerful voice for human rights. Nyadol is also a regular media commentator in these areas, having appeared on ABC’s The Drum, as a panellist on Q&A and contributing to The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, and the Saturday Paper, to name just a few.
She’s an Advisory Committee Member of the Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law and Chair of Harmony Alliance – Australia's migrant and refugee women’s coalition, where she’s empowering migrant women, including improving their digital literacy.
In both 2011 and 2014, Nyadol was nominated as one of the hundred most influential African Australians. In 2016, she was the recipient of the Future Justice Prize.
In 2018 her efforts to combat racism were widely recognised, with achievements including the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Racism. It Stops With Me Award. The prestigious award was in recognition of her advocacy and activism on behalf of the Australian-African and Melbourne’s South Sudanese communities.
Nyadol also received the Harmony Alliance Award for significant contribution to empowering migrant and refugee women and was a co-winner of the Tim McCoy Prize for her advocacy on behalf of the South Sudanese Community. She also received the Afro-Australian Student Organisation‘s Unsung Hero Award.