Governor-General to receive honorary doctorate

 

Published by the Communications and Development Department

 

25 September 2002

 

The Governor-General, Dame Silvia Cartwright, is to be awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Canterbury.

 

The honorary degree, a Doctor of Laws (honoris causa), will be presented at the University’s graduation ceremony at the Christchurch Town Hall on December 18.
Dame Silvia became New Zealand’s eighteenth Governor-General in April 2001, after a distinguished career as a lawyer and jurist, and as an advocate for women and women's rights.

Announcing the award, the University’s Chancellor Dame Phyllis Guthardt said she was delighted the Governor-General had accepted.

“Dame Silvia has been a significant advocate for the achievement and well-being of women over the years and is a distinguished member of the legal profession,” she said.

Dame Silvia is patron of the University’s Violence Research Centre, Te Awatea, which was opened in April this year. At the time Dame Silvia described the Centre and its aim of developing strategies to reduce violence in New Zealand society as “critically important”.

 

Having spent 20 years as a judge dealing with the consequences of violence, she said it was not enough merely to condemn violence, it had to be researched thoroughly and stopped.

 

Dame Silvia was born in Dunedin and graduated LLB from Otago University. After several years in private practice, she embarked on a judicial career which culminated in her appointment to the High Court, the first woman to achieve that status. In 1987 and 1988, Dame Silvia chaired the Commission of Inquiry into the Treatment of Cervical Cancer and Other Related Matters at National Women's Hospital. The inquiry, also known as the Cartwright Inquiry, was a landmark in New Zealand medical history.

Internationally, Dame Silvia contributed as a member of the United Nations committee monitoring compliance with the United Nations Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

She is patron to more than 200 organisations and charities and regularly travels overseas to represent New Zealand on the world stage.

She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1989, and is married (1969) to Mr Peter Cartwright, a barrister who chairs the Broadcasting Standards Authority and is a member of the Accident Compensation Appeal Authority.

 

For further information contact Dame Phyllis Guthardt, the University’s Chancellor, phone 03 329-9675.