Michael O'Flaherty: Difference between revisions

Professor '''Michael O'Flaherty''' is the incoming (September 2015) Director of the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency. An Irish human rights lawyer, he was a member from 2004 to 2012 of the [[United Nations Human Rights Committee]] (HRC), the expert body that oversees compliance with the [[International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights]] (ICCPR).<ref name = UNBIO>[http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrc/membersCVs/oflaherty.htm Official UN biography]</ref> Again nominated by Ireland in 2008, O'Flaherty was re-elected to the HRC with the highest number of votes (136 states) achieved by any candidate.<ref>[http://humanrightsdoctorate.blogspot.com/2008/09/michael-oflaherty-gets-most-votes-in.html Blog report of UN HRC election 2008]</ref> On 19 September 2011 he took up appointment as the third Chief Commissioner of the [[Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission]] (NIHRC), the statutory [[national human rights institution]] for Northern Ireland.<ref>Belfast Telegraph report 15 July 2011</ref><ref name = NIO>[http://www.nio.gov.uk/paterson-announces-appointments-to-the-northern-ireland-human-rights-commission/media-detail.htm?newsID=17948 NIO news release 18 July 2011]</ref> He resigned as chief commissioner in October 2013 "for personal reasons" after only two years in the post.▼

A native of [[Salthill]] in Galway,<ref>[http://www.galwaynews.ie/20560-salthill-man-new-northern-human-rights-chief Galway News report 18 July 2011]</ref> and the son and grandson of mayors of Galway,<ref>"Role of honour :the mayors of Galway City 1485–2001",William Henry,2002</ref> O'Flaherty holds degrees in law from [[University College Dublin]], in theology and philosophy from the [[Pontifical Gregorian University]] in Rome, and in international relations from the [[University of Amsterdam]]. Ordained in the 1980s as a priest in the Roman Catholic Church for the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora|Diocese of Galway]], he has not exercised priestly ministry since 1992.<ref>Belfast Telegraph report 18 July 2011</ref> At the time of his appointment to the NIHRC he had not yet completed the process of [[Defrocking|laicisation]],<ref>[http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/outspoken-rights-watchdog-chief-is-an-ordained-priest-16024448.html Belfast Telegraph report 18 July 2011]</ref> but had applied for it,<ref>"Galwayman is appointed to key human rights chair in the North", Galway City Tribune, 22 July 2011, page 5</ref> and has now been laicised.<ref>[http://galwayindependent.com/stories/item/5627/2013-4/Professor-Michael-O'Flaherty---Human-Rights-expert]</ref>▼

Qualified as a solicitor in Ireland, he does not practice in the courts. Since completing his postgraduate studies he has worked mainly in the field of international human rights. From 2004 to 2008 he was Professor of Applied Human Rights and Co-Director of the Human Rights Law Centre at the [[University of Nottingham]], England.<ref>[http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/law/staff-lookup/M.Oflaherty University of Nottingham biography]</ref> It was announced in December 2012 that he would take up the position of Director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights and Professor of Human Rights Law at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and that during the period that he remains at the Northern Ireland Commission the Irish Centre for Human Rights will be co-directed by Professor Ray Murphy.<ref>http://www.nuigalway.ie/about-us/news-and-events/news-archive/2012/december2012/nui-galway-appoints-michael-oflaherty-as-professor-of-human-rights.html</ref>▼

Having written extensively on the ICCPR in the 1990s, O'Flaherty joined the United Nations civil service and held several headquarters and field positions in the [[Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights|Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights]] (OHCHR). This included co-ordination of the OHCHR Asia and the Pacific programmes, field operations in Sierra Leone and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and (2000–02) chairing the UN reference group on human rights and humanitarian action. He served for some years as secretary to the [[Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination]], and as a senior researcher in [[Florence]] at the [[UNICEF]] child rights research unit, the [[UNICEF#The Innocenti Research Centre|Innocenti Research Centre]].<ref name = UNBIO/> He is a member of the UN Expert Group on Human Rights Indicators, and is an advisor to several intergovernmental and international non-governmental organisations,<ref name = NIO/> including the [[European Roma Rights Centre]] and the Council of the [[European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation]].<ref name = UNBIO/>▼

In a 2015 newspaper article he described his period of work in the field:▼

<blockquote>"Documenting wartime human rights violations used to be my job. Over a good few years, working for the United Nations, I witnessed the most appalling acts of cruelty and inhumanity. Often I arrived on a scene to find mutilated bodies, wounded or deeply traumatised survivors and smouldering buildings. ▼

A few times I was a direct witness to atrocity, like the summary execution of “rebels” in the streets of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. In that country the perpetrators were sometimes just teenagers, many of whom had themselves been abducted years beforehand. I used to speak with these kids, who were often armed to the teeth and high on drugs, to try to persuade them to release kidnapped children. ▼