From 1978 to 2000 Rees was professor of social work and social policy at the University of Sydney. For years Rees taught a post-graduate unit titled "Passion, Peace and Poetry" at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, in which he integrated poetry with a study of the great non-violence leaders such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King. A similar use of poetry to illustrate the theme of peace with justice runs through many of his publications.
For six years Rees was a member of the Aboriginal Reconciliation Council of New South Wales. He has also been a council member of the Toda Research Institute into Global Governance and Human Security. Between 2004 and 2010, Rees chaired the NSW Energy Council.
He has been a human rights activist in several countries and his non-academic activities have included community development, probation services and social work in the UK and Canada; work with War on Poverty programs in the U.S.A.; and work with the Save the Children non-governmental organisation in India and Sri Lanka; co-architect of the West Papua Social Justice project; and co architect of the Sri Lankan project for the human rights of the Tamil minority.
Rees is[when?] a regular broadcaster on Australia's ABC Radio about the "means and meaning of peace with justice"[citation needed] is also a regular New Matilda contributor.[3] Rees has been a regular convenor at "Politics in the Pub".
In 2012, Rees spoke about Pablo Picasso as a lifelong advocate of peace at the Art Gallery NSW (Art After Hours).[4]
Rees is an active supporter of the worldwide Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement which promotes Palestinian peoples' rights to self-determination. Rees has defended his efforts to convince the University of Sydney to sever ties with Israeli institutions. At a rally held in August 2013, Rees was personally supported by Australian MP David Shoebridge.[5] In 2013, Rees sharply criticised Julia Gillard for signing the London Declaration on Combating Anti-Semitism. Rees described Gillard's signing of the declaration as "childish, thoughtless but easily populist."[6]
Publications
Rees' publications include numerous books and over one hundred journal articles on social justice, health care and welfare services, critiques of free market economics, the human costs of management practices and the attributes of peace negotiations and humanitarianism in social policy. Rees has also published three anthologies of poetry: The Jury's Return (1992), Tell Me the Truth About War (2004), and A Will to Live (2014).
For four years he was an elected Fellow of the Senate of the University of Sydney.
In 2005 he was awarded a Member of the Order of Australiafor service to international relations, particularly as Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney and through the establishment of the Sydney Peace Prize.[7]
