Charles Hugh Francis, BA, LLB, B.Com (Melbourne University) has been a trial lawyer since 1949 and was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 1969. He is a former chairman of the Victorian Bar (1987-1988) and served on the Australian Bar Association Council (1987-89). He is a former Vice-Chairman of the Criminal Bar Association (1983-84) and has served on the Common Law Bar Association Committee since 1989. He is a former member of the Victorian State Parliament (1976-79) and for many years was an independent lecturer at Melbourne University.

Schooled at Melbourne Grammar and the University of Melbourne, in World War II he served in the Royal Australian Airforce (1942-45) as an air-gunner, and later became a Group Captain and Deputy Judge-Advocate General (1979-82). He was awarded the Reserve Forces Decoration and the Queen’s Jubilee Medal.

In Australia, Charles Francis is frequently in demand to speak on Human Rights issues, on Euthanasia, and on UN Conventions, and has lectured in the USA, Canada, England, New Zealand, Switzerland and Ireland. He is the author of numerous papers on legal history and human rights. In 1997, he was Co-Chairman of the Committee in Prague, which prepared the Declaration of the World Congress of Families.

In August 1999, Charles Francis convened the Australian Regional Conference of the World Congress of Families II in Melbourne, Australia.

Charles Francis has appeared frequently as defence counsel for pro-life persons prosecuted for standing and praying outside abortion clinics and has also acted in many other pro-life cases.