Topic: Gareth Evans

Gareth John Evans, AO, QC (born 5 September 1944), is a former Australian politician from 1978 to 1999 representing the Australian Labor Party, serving in a number of ministries including Attorney-General and Foreign Minister from 1983 to 1996 in the Hawke and Keating governments. He was president and chief executive officer of the International Crisis Group from 2000 to 2009. Soon after, he was appointed an honorary professorial fellow at the University of Melbourne. In 2010, Evans was appointed Chancellor of the Australian National University.

Evans was born in Melbourne, Victoria, the son of a tram driver. He was educated at Melbourne High School; the University of Melbourne, where he graduated in arts and law; and Oxford University, where he took a Masters degree in philosophy, politics and economics. In 2004, he became an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, his alma mater at Oxford.

He practised as a barrister in Melbourne, specialising in representing trade unions. From 1971 he was a lecturer and then a senior lecturer in constitutional law at Melbourne University, and was considered one of Australia's leading constitutional lawyers. In 1977 he edited Labor and the Constitution 1972–75, a collection of essays on constitutional issues during the Whitlam government. He became a Queen's Counsel in 1983.