Mount Martha resident, author, and human rights lawyer and advocate Scott Leckie has spent his life pushing boundaries. Much of his work in recent years has been inspired by the concept of being a “citizen of the world,” a term first coined by Socrates.
“That’s what drives me now, working so much on that issue,” Scott said. “How do you actually concept that all humans are essentially the same, essentially members of the same human race, the same family, and how do we make our politics and our governments match that point of view so that we have no wars and no poverty and no discrimination and no violence and no brutality and a much more equitable world than we have today?”
Born in Southern California, Scott’s outlook was shaped more by his exposure to people from around the world than by his conservative upbringing. His summers at camp on the east coast of America introduced him to people from Venezuela, Argentina, and Germany, igniting an interest in different cultures and societies. “When I was in the first or second year of university, it just sort of hit me: I have to do something, for lack of a better term, to make the world a better place,” Scott said. “And that didn’t involve just self-enrichment and selfish decision making, but something to ultimately reduce human suffering in the world.”
This revelation sent Scott on a journey into the world of human rights. “Every single day, all of us, every single human alive goes through life having a whole series of rights that law has given us, but not all of them are fully met,” he said. “I figured that human rights was the thing, because it touched more people, more places, more often than anything else did.”
I have to do something, for lack of a better term, to make the world a better place
Scott’s career has taken him to over 80 countries, from Switzerland and the Netherlands to disaster and war zones. Over the years, he has written 26 books, many of which discuss housing rights and land solutions for climate displacement. His work has helped shape international policy, including UN resolutions, guiding principles, and judicial decisions.
In October, Scott’s latest novel was released. Shrewd Little Sleuth is a gripping story of intrigue which explores the life and death of his grandfather, Arthur Bernard Leckie.
Arthur was a private investigator who worked with some of Hollywood’s biggest names, including Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando. He died 24 hours before Marilyn Monroe did, also under suspicious circumstances.
It’s a story that was buried in the family for decades. “It took until I was 30 before my father, ever spoke to me in any detail about his father,” Scott said. Out of the blue one day, Scott’s dad revealed it was the 30th anniversary of his grandfather’s death and began telling Scott about Arthur’s extraordinary life. “He started telling these unbelievable stories. And I was already very heavily involved in politics, and I knew all about the darkest periods of U.S. political history, only to find out that my grandfather was a central player in all of that,” Scott said.
He filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FBI, which sent him 533 documents, withholding 90 others. “So, there’s something in their possession which they didn’t want the world to know about just yet,” Scott said. The documents he was provided with were revealing enough, and now years of researching, interviewing, and writing has come together in Shrewd Little Sleuth. “I actually feel that in many respects I know him better than I even know my parents. I found thousands and thousands of pages and documents about him, and photographs and everything, and delved so deep,” Scott said.
Scott is choosing to focus one of his next novels closer to home. In 2009, after decades of travelling and war zones and difficult human rights circumstances, he chose to base himself on the Mornington Peninsula alongside his Australian partner, Kirsten Young, and their adopted daughter, Pali.
Scott is currently working on a new murder mystery novel based on the peninsula. “I’ve always wanted to write a novel about the place where I was living at the time, and I’ve never done that, and now I’m in the process of doing it,” Scott said.
A self-described “lurker,” Scott has spent countless hours driving around and exploring hidden backroads and beaches on the peninsula. “When we have guests, and we have a lot of guests from overseas, we just go driving all day long to different places on the peninsula and I’ve done that so many hundreds of times that I have all these little spots already planned out where certain events are going to happen in the book,” he said.
The timeline for release is still unclear, but a third of the way into the book, Scott said he is having lots of fun writing about where he lives. He hopes it will have people “shocked and awed” and has the intention of keeping readers guessing ‘whodunnit’ until the final page.
Working mainly from home, Scott continues to connect with people from around the globe and contribute to global conversations advocating for human rights and continuing to explore the path towards a more unified world.
You can find more information about Scott’s work, books and newest releases on his website.