After ten years working at the United Nations’ International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and five saving Tasmanian devils, Rebecca Cuthill has a remarkable knowledge of the importance of peace.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Joining the Tamar Valley Peace Festival as a guest speaker for the Tax Institute’s Inspiring Women in Business breakfast, Ms Cuthill believes all communities could do with a little more peace.
After several years working as a journalist with SBS, Ms Cuthill went to Holland for a holiday in the early 1990s. There she fell into a three-month contract in the Hague’s media office which stretched into a 10-year career.
“Even when I was working over in the Hague I used to come home once a year at least … and actually what you realised was how incredibly lucky we are here in Tassie,” she said.
“There’s always been people here who have open minds and are looking outwards.”
After 10 years of working with the Hague helping to deliver justice and find some closure for countless war crimes, Ms Cuthill left the Hague and, with her family, returned to Tasmania.
Since then she has worked with the Save the Tasmanian Devils Appeal to provide a future for the state’s vulnerable icon.
“When I started working with the appeal, I thought, no, that part of what I was doing … that’s been done,” she said.
“But when I was asked to [join] the Peace Festival I thought, no, this is important and it’s something I feel quite strongly about.”
It’s a strange juxtaposition – moving from days spent surrounded by security guards in shell-shocked European towns, explaining the verdicts of war crime cases to the communities that experienced those crimes, to raising more than $3 million as the manager of the Save the Tasmanian Devils appeal.
But the first stands as a warning of how quickly a peaceful country can be upturned, and the second as a result of a nation maintaining empathy, respect and compassion.
“Yugoslavia was a bit of a poster-child for multiculturalism, it was multi-faith, it was communist but it was still quite pluralistic,” she said.
“So to have a war, it was really quite unexpected.
“We need to realise yes, we’re sitting here in Tassie and it’s all lovely, and aren’t we lucky, but also things can happen in communities and I think we can all do something to … bring peace into the world.”
Ms Cuthill will speak at the Inspiring Women in Business breakfast at the Hotel Grand Chancellor, Thursday, 7.30am. Register via taxinstitute.com.au