Seweryn Antoni "Sev" Ozdowski AM (born 24 June 1949, in Poland) is an Australian human rights advocate and social researcher, former senior civil servant and Human Rights Commissioner and Disability Discrimination Commissioner for the Australian government from 2000 to 2005.
[1][2][3][4] Born in Poland, Ozdowski graduated with a Master of Laws (LLM) in 1971 and Master of Arts (MA) in Sociology in 1973 from Poznań University, Poland and with a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales in 1980.
In 1984 he was awarded the Harkness Fellowship for post-graduate work at Harvard, Georgetown and Berkeley Universities in USA (1984–86).
[11][12] The International Human Rights Education (IHRE) Conferences which were initiated in 2010 by Ozdowski to advance human rights culture world-wide, have been held in Sydney, Australia;[13] Durban, South Africa; Cracow, Poland;[14] Taipei, Taiwan;[15] Washington DC, USA;[16] Middelburg, Holland; Montreal, Canada and most recently in Australia.
In 2016 Ozdowski was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to the community, particularly to human rights education, social justice and multiculturalism, and as an academic.