‘Human rights must not be given just lip service’

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Bulletin volume 15 Issue 2 - September 2015

‘Human rights must not be given just lip service’

Prof. O’Flaherty, President Higgins, President

Gauck and NUIG President Browne

Inside:

• Doctoral Seminar

• Arts and Human Rights

Summer School

• News from the ICHR

• Summer School in Cinema,

Human Rights and Advocacy

• Lunchtime Seminars

• Farewell to Dr. Roisin Burke

• Human Rights Exhibition at St. Nicholas Collegiate

Church

• Burma

/IrishHumanRights

The German President Joachim Gauck and

Irish President Michael D. Higgins visited NUI

Galway and the Irish Centre for Human Rights.

NUI Galway conferred an Honorary Degree on the

President of the Federal Republic of Germany, His

Excellency Joachim Gauck on the 15th of July 2015.

President Gauck joined the ranks of previous honorary alumni which include, among many others, Nelson Mandela, Hilary Clinton, Enya,

Anjelica Huston, and Margaret Atwood.

The Honorary Conferring was preceded by the participation of President Gauck and President of

Ireland Michael D. Higgins in a seminar at the Irish

Centre for Human Rights on the topic of development and human rights. Among the participants were representatives of the development sector in Ireland, members of the

German delegation, academics and human rights experts, PhD students, Irish and German diplomats and policy makers. The seminar was moderated by

Professor Michael O’Flaherty, Director of the

Centre at NUI Galway.

In his speech at the Honorary Conferring, the

German president invoked the original spirit of the

European project when he appealed for solidarity in a time of crisis. He expressed concern about the rise of ‘autocracies’ on Europe’s southern and eastern peripheries. Referring to those seeking refuge in

Europe, he said: “(…) We should not forget that hardship and a lack of freedom in their own countries once drove countless Irish and Germans to set off across the Atlantic to start a new life (…).”

In his Introductory Address, Prof. Michael O’

Flaherty paid tribute to the German contribution to world culture He also praised President Gauck’s leadership for transitional justice in Germany.

He concluded:

“(…) Joachim Gauck’s earlier life well suited him to his leadership role in transitional Germany. Born in

Rostock in 1940 he had direct experience of the regime’s repressive ways. His father spent many years deported to Siberia. He himself was denied the opportunity to study German language and literature.

Instead he turned to theology and became a pastor.

When in 1989 religious leaders assumed a central place in promoting democracy Pastor Gauck played a pivotal role. He helped lead the popular movement ‘New

Forum’ in Rostock and he held religious ceremonies that preceded large-scale peaceful demonstrations. (…)

On 18 March 2012, Joachim Gauck became the 11th

President of the Federal Republic of Germany. Since then he has been tireless in propounding public ethics and a civic space that is grounded in a belief in inviolable human dignity – a society that, above all else values freedom. (…)”

For the whole speech, please use the following link: http://www.nui.ie/college/docs/citations/2015/nuig/JoachimGauck.pdf

/IrishCentreHR humanrights@nuigalway.ie

Doctoral Seminar 2015

The Centre hosted its 14th Annual Doctoral Seminar from 27th April to 1st May. The Seminar is the highlight of the calender for our PhD students, a vibrant and engaging academic event that brings together a large number of PhD researchers both from the Centre and other international research institutes. During the week, doctoral students have an opportunity to present their research projects and to receive feedback from visiting experts, Centre staff and fellow students.

This year’s Doctoral Seminar saw three distinguished experts invited to Galway: Prof. Yutaka Arai

(University of Kent, Brussels), Dr. Jeroen

Doctoral Seminar at the ICHR

Temperman (Erasmus University Rotterdam) and

Dr. Annyssa Bellal (Geneva Call). As part of their engagement, each presented on a current piece of research. Professor Arai spoke on ‘The Relationship between IHL and International Criminal Law –

Salutary Osmosis’ and Dr Bellal, spoke on the

‘Challenges for Compliance by Non-State Armed

Groups’ . Dr Temperman gave a presentation on on

‘Religious Hatred in International Law’ . The

Honorary Chair of the Irish Centre for Human

Rights, Professor William Schabas, gave a lecture on the ‘Customary Law of Human Rights’ . Dr Kathleen

Cavanaugh and Dr Shane Darcy led workshops on research methods and publishing.

ARTS AND HUMAN

RIGHTS SUMMER

SCHOOL

From 6–9 July, the ICHR hosted the first Galway

International Summer School on the Arts and Human Rights.

This was an ambitious initiative to bring together artists and human rights practitioners to explore their shared space. The

Summer School was co-directed by Prof. O’Flaherty and Dr.

Dominique Bouchard of the Hunt Museum, Limerick and attracted 120 participants from 34 different nationalities across five continents. The opening address was delivered by

Ms. Farida Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur with respect to cultural rights. Ms. Shaheed emphasised the need for divergent voices and the right to decide on one’s own cultural heritage. Other speakers included human rights academics

Prof. Sarah Joseph and Prof. Manfred Nowak, activists such as Ms. Mary Lawlor of Front Line Defenders, artists, musicians and novelists including Rita Duffy, Julian Fifer,

Paul Seawright, Rod Stoneman, Jennifer Johnston, Lelia

Doolan and Dominic Thorpe, art-activists such as Vered

Cohen Barzilay, and museum curator Guido Gryseels. There were plenary sessions on “The shared quest for ‘belonging’ in the arts and human rights” as well as “Arts and Human Rights in the particular context of Northern Ireland” and “Protecting

Artistic Space” . The Summer School programme also included the presentation of conference papers, exhibitions, a concert, and a theatre performance. The Galway International Human

Rights Photography Competition was an integral part of the

Summer School. The ICHR mounted a human rights exhibition that included the winning photograph by Maurice

Gunning, alongside the re-interpreted 1949 UNESCO

Human Rights Exhibition, at St. Nicholas Collegiate Church,

Galway (see the separate story). See short film at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lQz8bU-bfg

Ms. Farida Shaheed speaking at the Summer School

Prof. Manfred Nowak of University of Vienna addresses the Plenary. Also pictured left to right: Prof. Rod Stoneman, Dr. Dominique Bouchard, Julian Fifer, Vered Cohen Barzilay, and Dr. Guido Gryseels.

2 /IrishHumanRights /IrishCentreHR humanrights@nuigalway.ie

Prof O’Flaherty chairs seminar on

Human Rights and Development with

President Gaulk of Germany, President

Higgins of Ireland and leading human rights and development practitioners.

NEWS FROM THE ICHR

SUMMER SCHOOLS

Summer School in Cinema, Human Rights and Advocacy

For the last 10 years the Summer School has attracted young talented filmmakers and professionals from all over the world who wish to engage in an exciting training course where ideas and projects are shared, developed and challenged by fellow participants and internationally acclaimed experts of film, television, photography and human rights.

The 10th Summer School in Cinema, Human Rights and Advocacy took place at the Huston School of

Film & Digital Media in Galway in June. Cinema and

Human Rights and Advocacy (CHRA) is a training initiative offered by the Huston School of Film &

Digital Media and the ICHR and supported by the

Open Society Foundations.

The Summer School was led by Nick Danziger, an internationally renowned practitioner in the field of human rights documentary making. The 10-day programme consisted of eight teaching sessions, workshops and film screenings that combine human rights expertise and media studies. Sessions developed issues relating to the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights, an introduction to human rights law & philosophy issues, a history of human rights cinema, freedom of expression and censorship, the use of video in human rights documentation and advocacy, producing social documentaries, the role of media in period of conflict and production and distribution of human rights films. Each module was illustrated by film or documentary screenings.

ICC Summer School

The Irish Centre for Human Rights hosted its annual Summer School on the

International Criminal Court from 15th to 19th of June 2015 at NUI Galway.

The Summer School was well attended with delegates travelling from all corners of the globe to participate in a lively and enlightening week. Fascinating presentations were delivered by some of the world’s leading experts in the subject area, including Prof. William Schabas, Prof. Don Ferencz and Dr.

Fabricio Guariglia. An interactive environment facilitated many animated and thought-provoking debates. The 2015 summer school included a special session on Palestine and the International Criminal Court, a pertinent topic given

Palestine’s recent accession to the Rome Statute. A number of social activities were included in the programme to ensure an ideal balance of learning and fun.

A spirited moot court, during which the delegates put their newfound knowledge to the test, followed by the closing dinner marked the ending of the

ICC Summer School.

Irish Centre for Human Rights - Bulletin volume 15, Issue 2, September 2015 3

NEWS FROM THE ICHR

LUNCHTIME SEMINARS

Dr. Teng Biao

Chinese human rights activist Dr. Teng Biao spoke on the topic “China- Rights, Resistance and

Repression” on the 16th of March 2015. Dr. Biao, who was invited by Front Line Defenders to visit

Ireland, spoke about his house arrest, revocation of his law license and the torture he had experienced. As an active member of the Weiquan rights defenders movement, Dr. Biao was also one of the founders of the Open Constitution Initiative and the New

Citizens Movement. Dr. Biao eventually had to flee to the United States, leaving his family behind, and is now a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University. Dr. Biao explained that limited progress was achieved on the issue of capital punishment and some reforms have been made, for instance, giving China’s highest court the power to overturn death sentences. The speaker stressed that the international community also has a role to play in the fight for democracy and accountability of the government. He stressed the importance of civil rights lawyers, rather than official lawyers at international meetings and conferences.

Dr. Biao believes by spreading the truth, international public opinion can aid democratic change.

Lunchtime seminar at the ICHR with Dr. Biao

Ms. Mary Akrami

The ICHR was pleased to have Ms. Mary Akrami for a lunchtime seminar on the 12th of February

2015. Ms. Mary Akrami is an Afghan women’s rights activist and the Executive Director of the

Afghan Women Skills Development Center

(AWSDC) and the Chair of the Board for the

Afghan Women’s Network (AWN). Mary Akrami, who stayed in Ireland upon the invitation of Front

Line Defenders, spoke on the state of women’s rights in Afghanistan. She addressed the establishment of the AWSDC, the first shelter for women at risk in Afghanistan. Mary was prompted to start this shelter because she was shocked seeing women sleeping in the street at night.  Her resolve to act was heightened when she read a news story of a woman who had been arrested, and upon her release, was rejected by her family. Since then, there have been more than 25 shelters established across the country.

4

Dr. Andrea Breslin

Dr. Andrea Breslin spoke on her experiences in South Sudan. South

Sudan gained independence in 2011 after a protracted civil war with the north. At the time of independence, doubts arose as to whether the country was equipped and sufficiently stable for its nascent statehood.

The seminar examined some of the causes of the large-scale conflict that broke out in South Sudan in December 2013, and some of the drivers and actors involved in the ongoing armed conflict. The seminar explored the implications of the refocused mandate of UNMISS in accordance with Security Council Resolution 2155 (2014), and the challenges facing human rights monitoring and the protection of civilians in an active armed conflict. Discussion touched on the implementation of the peace agreements and the use of targeted sanctions as a means to address the conflict.

Sgt. Annette Murtagh

On the 11th of March 2015 Sergeant Murtagh gave a lunchtime seminar on ‘The

Challenges for Field Investigators in a Post War Environment’ . Sergeant Murtagh talked about her involvement within investigation teams in particular when she was in Kosovo. She highlighted the issues and barriers in relation to bringing victims and witnesses before the courts and spoke about investigation teams in the field.

Annette Murtagh gave an insight into the investigations that took place in Kosovo in relation to gathering evidence of widespread systematic crimes, in particular sexual crimes. Sergeant Murtagh also talked about the challenges of interviewing victims because of their cultural background and in particular in cases of rape or sexual violence.

/IrishHumanRights /IrishCentreHR humanrights@nuigalway.ie

NEWS FROM THE ICHR

Farewell to

Dr. Roisin

Burke

Dr. Roisin Burke recently completed a two year Irish Research Council funded postdoctoral fellowship at the ICHR. The project was titled, ‘Rule of Law reform initiatives: A vehicle for advancing gender justice, women’s civil law and property rights, and rural women’s access to justice in conflict-affected states?’ . The project focused on two case studies, Somalia and

Timor Leste and was policy orientated in design. It employed a combination of legal and socio-legal research methods, in examining gender mainstreaming in rule of law programming in peace-building contexts. Roisin has recently taken a three month Temporary Advisor position at the

Irish Department of Foreign Affairs'

Permanent Mission to the United Nations, for the upcoming UN General Assembly meetings. In December 2015 she will commence as a Senior Lecturer at the Law

Faculty of the University of Canterbury,

Christchurch, New Zealand. Roisin completed an LL.M. at the Irish Centre for

Human Rights in 2006/2007, thereafter completing a PhD in 2012 at the Asia

Pacific Centre for Military Law, University of Melbourne Law School.

The Changing Face of

Human Rights

As part of its Summer School on the Arts and human

Rights, the Irish Centre for Human Rights mounted two human rights-related exhibitions in Galway during July. A highlight was the re-presentation of a photography display commissioned by UNESCO in

1949. The images originally toured the world not long after World War II in an effort to build awareness and understanding of human rights, and following on from the adoption of the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights. The exhibition is a modern examination of the 1948 material and contains many fascinating images that say much about how human rights were visualized in a previous generation. The UNESCO images were displayed side by side with the winning images from the ICHRorganized Inaugural Galway International Human

Rights Photography Competition. The photographic competition judges include Irish Times Photographic

Editor Frank Millar, internationally renowned artist

Paul Seawright, Professor Rod Stoneman, Director of the Huston School of Film and Digital Media at NUI

Galway, Dr Dominique Bouchard of the Hunt

Museum and Professor O’Flaherty. The exhibition was at the historic St Nicholas Collegiate Church in

Galway city centre and was visited by some four thousand people over its two-week run. The ICHR is grateful to the Rector and community of St Nicholas’

Church for their hospitality and to the President of

NUI Galway for opening the exhibition and providing it with generous support.

N E W A P P O I N T M E N T

Dr. Anita

Ferrara

The ICHR welcomes a new member of staff,

Dr. Anita Ferrara. Anita holds an honours BA degree in Political Science, International

Relations from the University of Siena and a

Master in Human Rights and Conflict

Management from the Scuola Superiore

Sant’Anna Pisa. She successfully completed a

PhD in Law at the School of Oriental and

African Studies (SOAS), University of London, in 2012. Anita has recently published a research monograph focused on the assessment of the impact of the Chilean Truth and Reconciliation

Commission from a longer-term historical perspective.

During her PhD studies, she has been a

Graduate Teaching Assistant at SOAS and has previously worked for United Nations agencies such as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and United Nations

Development Programme.

Maurice Gunning, winner of the ICHR-organised 2015 Galway International Human Rights Photography

Competition, receives his award from NUIG president Dr Jim Browne with the competition co-directors Prof

Michael O’Flaherty and Dr Dominique Bouchard.

ICTY trip by LLM students

The ICHR conducted its annual field trip to the international tribunals in The Hague, The

Netherlands from the 26th to 27th of March

2015. Our post-graduate students visited the

International Court of Justice, the

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International

Criminal Court. Presentations were delivered by representatives of the each of the courts.

Irish Centre for Human Rights - Bulletin volume 15, Issue 2, September 2015 5

NEWS FROM THE ICHR

Burma

On behalf of the British Embassy in Burma, during 2014/2015 the ICHR delivered an awareness project entitled, “Towards Burmese

Ratification and Implementation of the

International Covenant on Civil and Political

Rights (ICCPR).”

The project included awareness trainings led by

Professor O’Flaherty with John Kissane, former

Head of International Human Rights at the UK

Ministry of Justice and Emily Brennan from the

ICHR. The workshops were targeted towards three key stakeholder groups: Government, parliament and civil society. The project introduced the international human rights treaty system and the ICCPR, identifying and exploring the roles of each stakeholder group in preparing for ICCPR ratification, while considering practical measures.

The project also included the development of a manual for all stakeholders regarding the steps towards ratification of UN human rights treaties to serve as a key training tool and sustainable resource for Burma participants.

S H O R T N E W S F R O M S T A F F

Dr. Ekaterina Yahyaoui

On the 23rd of April 2015 Dr. Yahyaoui was an invited speaker in: The Charlie Hebdo Attacks:

Questioning Narratives and Interpretations at the

School of Law, University of Limerick. Ireland.

In May of 2015, she was elected to the coordinating committee of the International Legal Theory

Interest Group of the European Society of

International Law for four years.

From the 2nd to 4th of June, Dr. Yahyaoui participated in the Juris Diversitas Annual

Conference, University of Limerick, Ireland and presented her paper ‘Constitutions Beyond the State: a Miracle or a Mirage?’

From the 3rd to 5th of September 2015 she was plenary speaker at the Critical Legal Conference:

Law, Space and the Political in Wroclaw, Poland and presented ‘Imagining Futures of International Law through Spacetime’ .

From the 9th to 12th of September, Dr. Yahyaoui participated in a meeting of the International Law and Feminism Interest Group of the European

Society of International Law at the ESIL Annual

Conference in Oslo, Norway and presented

‘Exploring ICJ’s (Dis)engagement with Feminism:

Separate and Dissenting Opinions as an Indicator’ .

Dr. Aoife Duffy

In May of 2015, Dr. Aoife Duffy presented a conference paper at the Law and Society

Association’s Annual Meeting at the University of

Washington, Seattle, USA. The research examines archival materials surrounding the use of certain interrogation methods in Northern Ireland associated with the introduction of internment in

August 1971. Dr. Duffy was awarded an LSA scholarship to attend the Early Career Workshop which was held immediately before the wider conference.

Dr. Shane Darcy

Academic staff member Dr. Shane Darcy has participated in a discussion panel ‘In the Shadows of

Conflict and Law: Wartime Collaborators and

International Humanitarian Law’ , at the School of

Law Faculty Colloquium, University of Washington,

Seattle, USA on the 14th of May 2015. One day earlier, he also participated in the panel on

‘Corporate Tax Avoidance and the Business and

Human Rights Agenda’ , Global Mondays Lecture,

University of Washington, Seattle on the 13th of

May 2015.

Dr. Darcy was invited to give the opening address at an event in Geneva, Switzerland in February titled

‘A Binding Instrument on Business and Human

Rights?’ , Opening Address, Geneva for Human

Rights & Friedrich Ebert Foundation,

Brainstorming Session on Business and Human

Rights on the 26th of February 2015.

Professor O’Flaherty

From the 11th to 12th of February, Professor

O’Flaherty participated as a panelist and speaker at an expert roundtable at the Carter Center, Atlanta,

Georgia, USA, on the topic of human rights-based electoral observation. The meeting was chaired by

President Jimmy Carter.

On the 28th of March Professor O’Flaherty was a representative of NUI Galway at the President of

Ireland’s Ethical Initiative National Seminar, which was hosted by President O’Higgins at Aras and

Uachtarain.

On the 5th and 6th of May, Professor O’Flaherty, in his capacity as Vice Chair of the Universal Rights

Group, participated in a retreat at Glion,

Switzerland, on the United Nations human rights programme. Other participants included senior UN officials, diplomats and civil society representatives.

The outcome of the proceedings was presented in

Geneva in September 2015.

On the 14th of May, Professor O’Flaherty delivered the Liam Minihan Lecture in Dublin, Ireland on the topic of the human rights and Irish penal policy. The lecture is hosted annually by the Irish Prison

Education Association.

Prof Ray Murphy

Academic staff member Prof. Ray Murphy travelled to Gaziantep in southern Turkey and participated in a Sexual and Gender Based Violence Workshop for

Syrian Human Rights Defenders as part of the

Physicians for Human Rights Investigations

Program in Syria.

In May 2015 he participated in an UN seminar on national human rights institutes at UN headquarters in New York, USA. Also in May 2015, he taught at the annual course run by the International Institute for Criminal Investigations in The Hague, The

Netherlands. Subsequently, he attended Department of Defence/Defences Forces seminar on the

Irish Government White Paper on Defence. Prof.

Murphy also participated in the an International

Seminar on Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity Investigations run by INTEPOL in Lyon, France in early June 2015.

In July 2015 Prof. Ray Murphy participated in a

Justice Rapid Response/Institute for Criminal

Investigators workshop in Jordan to prepare participants for rapid deployment on fact finding and investigation missions to conflict and post conflict situations.

6 /IrishHumanRights /IrishCentreHR humanrights@nuigalway.ie

HUMAN RIGHTS NEWS FROM THE SCHOOL OF LAW

Lord Chief Justice Morgan and Chief Justice Denham at the Annual Distinguished Lecture 2015

Dr. Connie Healy joins School of Law

In July, Dr. Connie Healy took up a full-time lectureship in the School of Law. Connie holds a BComm and LLB from NUI Galway (UCG).

She qualified as a solicitor in 1994 and has fifteen years post-qualification experience in civil and commercial litigation. Her PhD (NUI

Galway, 2014), which was supervised by Marie

McGonagle, was entitled ‘Resolution of Conflict in Family Law Matters: An Alternative and Child-

Inclusive Approach’ and was funded by the Irish

Research Council. She is an accredited commercial mediator (Centre for Effective

Dispute Resolution, London (CEDR)) and a collaborative lawyer. Connie’s research interests are in the area of Conflict Resolution,

Alternative Dispute Resolution (mediation and collaborative practice), Family Law and

Children’s Rights. Prior to taking up her fulltime post with us Connie lectured at the

University of Limerick. She has also lectured in the School of Law, NUIG on a part-time basis.

Dr. Eilionóir Flynn wins President’s

Award for Research

Excellence

Congratulations to Dr. Eilionóir Flynn, Associate

Head of Research for the School of Law and Acting

Director of the Centre for Disability Law & Policy, on being awarded a President’s Award for Research

Excellence in the early-career researcher category.

Eilionóir leads the ERC-funded VOICES project.

The project aims to change the law in relation to right to legal capacity for people with disabilities. Its aim is to explore the experiences of people with disabilities in exercising, or being denied, their legal capacity. The project will involve pairing people with a lived experience of disability with scholars, activists and policy-makers who will provide critical legal, policy and social responses to those experiences and jointly develop concrete recommendations for reform. It will involve participants from all over the world.

For more information on the VOICES project visit www.ercvoices.com

or contact ercvoices@nuigalway.ie

Dr. Eilionóir Flynn

Annual Distinguished

Lecture 2015 delivered by Lord

Chief Justice Morgan

The School of Law Annual Distinguished Lecture for

2015 was delivered by the Lord Chief Justice for

Northern Ireland, Sir Declan Morgan, on the topic

‘The judicial role in the vindication of human rights’.

The event was chaired by the Chief Justice of Ireland,

Chief Justice Susan Denham and was attended by over 150 students and alumni of the School of Law.

Previous speakers in the Annual Distinguished

Lecture series include: Professor Christopher

McCrudden of Oxford University, Judge John T.

Noonan of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth

Circuit, Professor Neil Walker of Edinburgh

University, Baroness Brenda Hale of the UK Supreme

Court, Mrs. Justice Catherine McGuinness of the

Irish Supreme Court and Mr. Justice Nial Fennelly of the Irish Supreme Court. After the event a presentation was made by Chief Justice Denham on behalf of the School of Law to a former lecturer in the

School, Judge Francis Comerford, to mark his recent appointment to Circuit Court bench.

Law student wins prestigious FLAC

Fellowship

Mahmoud Abukhadir, BCorp Law, LLB

Mahmoud Abukhadir, a final year LLB student and graduate of the BCorp Law programme at the School of Law, NUI Galway, has been awarded the prestigious Thomas Addis

Emmet Fellowship 2015. Each year, the Free

Legal Advice Centres (FLAC), in conjunction with the University of Washington, Seattle, sends an Irish law student as the Thomas

Addis Fellow to Seattle for two months to get first-hand experience in human rights and public interest cases.

Mahmoud Abukhadir also spent a period of the summer working as an intern in the Irish

Superior Courts as part of the Chief Justice’s

Summer Internship Programme open to Irish university law schools. In 2012, while a student on the BCorp Law programme at NUIG, he was the winner of the A & L Goodbody Bold

Ideas Competition for which he received a cash prize of €3,000 and an internship.

Irish Centre for Human Rights - Bulletin volume 15, Issue 2, September 2015 7

TESTIMONIALS AND ALUMNI NEWS

Andrea

Breslin

Aimé

Karimunda

Congratulations to Aimé

Karimunda, who wrote his

PhD thesis on Africa and the death penalty at the Irish

Centre for Human Rights with Prof. William Schabas.

Aimé was sworn in as a judge of the Supreme Court of

Rwanda.

I completed my PhD at the Irish Centre for Human Rights in 2011, after being awarded an NUI Galway bursary to complete my thesis.

While based in Galway, I led an MA programme in Public Advocacy and Activism which was co-hosted by the ICHR and the Huston

Film School. As part of this engagement I lectured in human rights law over a period of four years. I also spent a period working as a

Legal Assistant at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former

Yugoslavia at the beginning of my PhD studies, on a case concerning

Srebrenica. Since finishing my doctorate I have worked in Sierra

Leone and Liberia on human rights, elections and governance issues with Irish Aid, and in South Sudan as a field-based Human Rights

Officer with the UN Peacekeeping Mission. I am now based in

Ireland as an independent human rights consultant, and am presently undertaking some work for the Irish Human Rights and

Equality Commission on a project with affiliated national human rights institutions in Sierra Leone and Malawi. Engagement and discussion was always encouraged at the Centre, and the diversity and depth of experience and expertise of those at the Centre, both staff and students, and the guidance and advice available, has been and continues to be inspiring and invaluable.

Bonny Ling

I finished my PhD studies at the Irish Centre for Human

Rights in September 2014. The following month, I started a

Swiss National Science Foundation postdoctoral grant at the University of Zurich’s Centre for Human Rights

Studies, which has a research focus on business and human rights. My PhD was on the topic of human trafficking and

China, and now I am also writing on issues related to the human rights obligations of businesses. Zurich’s Centre for

Human Rights Studies runs an annual summer school on business and human rights. This year, we focused on labour rights, and I taught a session on child labour, drawing in part on my doctoral research on child labour exploitation.

For me, finishing my PhD last year was momentous. Like most other doctoral students, the process was filled with ups and downs. Sometimes the goal looked so far away.

Throughout my doctoral studies, the Irish Centre for

Human Rights gave me steadfast support. In addition to its renowned faculty, the Irish Centre for Human Rights is genuinely a very supportive place for its students, in both the academic mentoring sense and also in approaching each student as a whole person. I was not based in Galway while I wrote my PhD yet I could rely on the support network of the Centre for encouragement and advice. Dr.

Shane Darcy, my supervisor, was just an email or Skype call away, and my fellow doctoral students shared a sense of camaraderie that was not bound by geography. It is for these reasons that the Centre will always remain very special to me.

Bonny Ling

Helen

McDermott

I undertook an LL.M.

in International

Criminal Law (2008-

2009), and a PhD in

International Human

Rights Law at the

Irish Centre for

Human Rights (2009-2013). I am currently a post-doctoral research fellow in law and armed conflict with the Oxford Martin School Programme on Human Rights for Future

Generations at the University of

Oxford. I work on an interdisciplinary research project that explores the appropriateness of a human rights framework for addressing global challenges to human security in current and future generations.

The Irish Centre for Human Rights has played, and continues to play, a very important role in both my professional and personal development. The projects I worked on, events I participated in, and connections I made while studying at the Centre, complement the unrivaled mentorship

I received from my former doctoral supervisor, Dr. Shane Darcy, and other academic staff members. The Centre offers a collaborative learning environment and a world-renowned team of academics who support and encourage students to share ideas, and engage with the broader human rights community. My biggest takeaway from my time at the Centre is the rich network of friends and colleagues that I acquired; I am very grateful for their continued support of my endeavors in the field of human rights and beyond.

/IrishHumanRights /IrishCentreHR humanrights@nuigalway.ie

Irish Centre for Human Rights

National University of Ireland, Galway

Phone: +353 (0)91 493948

E-mail: humanrights@nuigalway.ie

Web: www.nuigalway.ie/human_rights

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