Commission
The Irish Human Rights Commission consists of 15 members, appointed by the Government for a period of five years. The first Commission served from July 2001 to June 2006. A new Commission was appointed on 31 August 2006 and its term commenced on 2 October 2006. The current President, Dr Maurice Manning, assumed office on 1 August 2002, and was reappointed in August 2007. The following is a biographical note on the President and 14 Commissioners:
Maurice Manning (President)
Dr Maurice ManningAn academic by background, Dr Manning previously lectured in politics in University College Dublin where he is currently Adjunct Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations. He is Chancellor of the National University of Ireland, and has been a member of the Governing Authority of the European University Institute at Florence.
Dr Manning has written several books on modern Irish politics. He was a member of the Oireachtas for twenty-one years, serving in both the Dáil and the Seanad. He has been a member of the New Ireland Forum and the British - Irish Inter Parliamentary Body. He has served as both Leader of the Seanad and Leader of the Opposition in that House.
William Binchy
Professor William BinchyWilliam Binchy was first appointed a Commissioner in 2001 and re-appointed in 2006. Professor Binchy is Regius Professor of Laws at Trinity College Dublin. He has been a special legal adviser on family law reform to the Department of Justice, preparing legislation on family maintenance, protection of the family home and domestic violence. As Research Counsellor to the Law Reform Commission, he advised on reform of law relating to the status of children. He has represented Ireland at the Hague Conference on Private International Law in the areas of marriage and inter-country adoption. He has actively contributed to public discussion of human rights issues, including those relating to Travellers, asylum seekers, divorce and abortion.
Professor Binchy is organiser of a programme on constitutionalism for the Tanzanian judiciary held in Dar es Salaam. He is also co-organiser of a training programme for the magistracy of Botswana and is organiser of the annual African workshop on constitutionalism for the Chief Justices and senior judiciary of African states, held in Trinity College, Dublin, which has been running since 1995. He was a Visiting Fellow at Corpus Christi College Cambridge for the Michaelmas term of 2002 and was a member of the Hederman Committee to Review the Offences Against the State Acts. He was a consultant to the late Mr Justice Dermot Kinlan, former Inspector of Prisons and Places of Detention, and has acted as a consultant to the Irish Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform on the justice system of Timor-Leste.
Conleth Bradley
Conleth Bradley SC is a barrister, appointed as a Commissioner on 3 September 2008. His areas of practice include judicial review and human rights law.
Olive Braiden
Ms Olive BraidenOlive Braiden was first appointed a Commissioner in 2001 and re-appointed in 2006. Ms Braiden has worked in the voluntary and community sectors for over 20 years. She was Director of the Rape Crisis Centre for 10 years. She has been involved in campaigns for legislative reforms in areas of women's rights. She commissioned research on the law of rape in the European Union and commissioned the SAVI Report, the first national research on child sexual abuse. She secured State funding to establish training programmes for community workers in the former Yugoslavia and Kosovo.
Ms Braiden was Chair of the Arts Council from 2003 to 2009. She is a board member of the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board. She was the establishing Chair of the Crisis Pregnancy Agency. She has served on many Government Working Parties and Steering Committees. In 2006, Ms Braiden was appointed by the Minister for Finance to the Public Service Benchmarking Body and by the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism to the London 2012 Olympics Task Force. Over a period of 15 years, she has lived in Spain, France, Belgium, UK, Bahamas and Thailand. She holds an M.Phil. in Gender Studies from Trinity College, Dublin and was awarded a Doctorate of Laws in 2008 by UCD.
Rosemary Byrne
Dr Rosemary ByrneRosemary Byrne was appointed a Commissioner in 2006. Dr Byrne is a Senior Lecturer in International and Human Rights Law at Trinity College Dublin and a Research Fellow at the Institute for International Integration Studies. Throughout her professional career she has engaged in research and advocacy in the areas of migration, refugee and asylum law, and has spoken on human rights in over 15 countries. She has worked with a range of international and Irish non-governmental organisations and conducted human rights training for the Council of Europe and the Helsinki Committee.
Dr Byrne has been a Government of Ireland Research Fellow and a Visiting Fellow at the Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School. Since 2000, she has also worked in the area of post-conflict justice, establishing the International Process and Justice project that monitors the trials underway at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Columbia University and a Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School.
Robert Daly
Professor Robert DalyRobert Daly was first appointed a Commissioner in 2001 and re-appointed in 2006. Professor Daly is an expert on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, on the psychiatric effects of interrogation and torture and on the medical aspects of human rights in general. In the past he represented the Irish Government in the torture case against the UK at the European Commission on Human Rights, was a member of Amnesty International's Medical Advisory Board awarded the European Peace Prize, advised the American Civil Liberties Union, and worked for victims of abuse in Latin American States and the Balkan Wars. He has evaluated programmes of the European Commission and the Council of Europe in many parts of the world. He has also been a trainer for the Committee for the Prevention of Torture and for human rights workers in the Kosovo conflict. He has served as an expert witness in numerous human rights-related cases on both sides of the border and in the UK.
Professor Daly served on the World Psychiatric Association's Committee dealing with allegations of abuse and, when Chairman of the Irish Division of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, advised the Minister for Health on changes in Mental Health law. He was formerly Dean of Medicine and head of the Psychiatry Department at University College Cork, Clinical Director in the Southern Health Board and a member of the Medical Research Council.
Suzanne Egan
Ms Suzanne EganSuzanne Egan was first appointed a Commissioner in 2001 and re-appointed in 2006. Ms Egan has been a lecturer in International and European Human Rights Law at the Faculty of Law in University College Dublin since 1992. She is a qualified barrister and holds a Master of Laws Degree from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. Prior to lecturing at UCD, she was the Legal Supervisor of an independent research centre on refugee law and policy in Canada (1989-1991) and a Research Assistant at the Law Reform Commission in Ireland (1991-1992). She is a former member of the Executive Committee of the Irish Refugee Council.
Ms Egan has published widely in the area of human rights, particularly with regard to refugee law and policy and has engaged in human rights training for various non-governmental organisations, the Council of Europe, and members of the legal profession.
Michael Farrell
Mr Michael FarrellMichael Farrell was first appointed a Commissioner in 2001 and re-appointed in 2006. Mr Farrell was prominently involved in the Civil Rights movement in Northern Ireland in the 1960s and 1970s and has campaigned on many civil rights and human rights issues over the past 30 years. He was involved in campaigns for the Birmingham Six and other victims of miscarriages of justice in the 1980s and in the campaign against political censorship under section 31 of the Broadcasting Act. He was vice-chair and then co-chair of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties for most of the 1990s and was involved in campaigns for gay rights, divorce, equality laws, refugee rights, against racism, and for the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into Irish law.
Mr Farrell has an MSc degree in Politics and was formerly a journalist and author. He is now a solicitor working for Free Legal Advice Centres Ltd (FLAC) and is Vice-Chairperson of the Law Society's Human Rights Committee. He has taken cases to the European Court of Human Rights and other international bodies. Born and brought up in Co. Derry, he lived for 20 years in Belfast before moving to Dublin where he now lives.
Alice Leahy
Ms Alice LeahyAlice Leahy was appointed a Commissioner in 2006. Ms Leahy is Director of TRUST, which she co-founded in 1975. TRUST is an organisation based in Dublin that offers health and related services to people who are homeless. She is a former Chairperson of the Sentence Review Group.
Ms Leahy is also a writer, commentator, broadcaster and lecturer, promoting understanding of the needs of the outsider in our society and seeking practical ways to help combat social exclusion. She lectures widely and has directly contributed to public policy as a member of various policy bodies such as the Lord Mayor's Commission on Crime chaired by Justice Michael Moriarty; a Working Party set up by the Minister for Health to look at the care of the disturbed mentally ill; and the National Crime Forum. Her books include "Not Just a Bed for the Night" (1995), "With Trust in Place" (2003) and "Wasting Time with People?" (2008). In recognition of the work of TRUST, she has received a number of awards including an honorary doctorate from UCD, Tipperary Person of the Year Award 2004 and was the first 'Overall Winner' of the Crystal Clear MSD Health Literacy Award in April 2009 for her life's work in combating social exclusion and providing medical related services for people who are homeless. An RTE television "Would You Believe" documentary featured the work of TRUST in February 2010.
Lia O'Hegarty
Ms Lia O’HegartyLia O'Hegarty was appointed a Commissioner in 2006. Ms O'Hegarty is a graduate of UCC (BCL), the University of Michigan (LLM) and Harvard University (LLM). She was called to the Bar in 1996. She worked as a researcher in the Law Reform Commission for a number of years. She also lectured on an occasional basis at Trinity College Dublin and University College Cork.
In 2000, Ms O'Hegarty was appointed Parliamentary Legal Adviser to the Houses of the Oireachtas. Latterly she has set up her own consultancy in legislation and public affairs. In 2007, she was appointed to the Criminal Law Codification Advisory Committee, established pursuant to the Criminal Justice Act 2006.
Tom O'Higgins
Mr Tom O’HigginsTom O'Higgins was first appointed a Commissioner in 2001 and re-appointed in 2006. A Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, he was President of the Institute in 1991/92. Mr O'Higgins was a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) from 1969 to 2000 where he was a senior audit partner and national human resources partner. He is a graduate in Economics and History from University College Dublin, in Human Resource Management (M.Sc.HRM) from Sheffield Hallam Business School and is a Master Coach from Middlesex University. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and of the Irish Taxation Institute.
A director of Concern Worldwide and of its subsidiaries, Mr O'Higgins completed a four-year term as non-executive Chairman in 2003. He is chairman of AMK, Concern's Cambodian micro-finance institution. He is a member of the Praesta Partners Ireland, an executive coaching firm.
Mr O'Higgins is a trustee of the Holocaust Educational Trust of Ireland and is Chairman of the Older and Bolder Campaign and a director of a number of private companies. He was Chairman of the Board of the Coombe Women's and Infants University Hospital from 2003 to 2007 and is a former Chairman of the Boardroom Centre.
A specialist in corporate governance, he is an occasional lecturer at the Centre for Corporate Governance at University College Dublin. He chairs the Audit Committees at the Offices of the Attorney General and the Chief State Solicitor, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Concern Worldwide and at the Courts Service, and is a member of the Audit Committee of DIT. He chaired the Audit Committees at the Houses of the Oireachtas and the Department of Education and Science from 2004 to 2009.
Helen O'Neill
Professor Helen O’NeillHelen O'Neill was appointed a Commissioner in 2006. She is Professor Emeritus in the Centre for Development Studies in UCD where she was its founding-Director. She obtained her BComm degree at UCD and her Masters and PhD degrees in Economics at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. She was President of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes from 1993 to 1999, President of the Association of Canadian Studies in Ireland from 2000 to 2002, and has chaired the Irish government's Advisory Committee on Development Cooperation and the Irish Commission for Justice and Peace.
Professor O'Neill has been a member of a number of international committees including the policy committee on developing countries of the International Council of Science (ICSU). She has been a visiting professor in a number of institutions including the University of Zambia, the World Bank Institute, Corvinus University, Budapest and Vidzema University, Latvia. She has carried out assignments for international organisations (including the World Bank and UN Industrial Development Organisation) in over a dozen African countries and the trans-Caucasus region. She has acted as expert to the Economic and Social Committee in Brussels on a wide range of issues in international relations and regional development and has acted as a consultant to EU Directorate General of Development.
Professor O'Neill has represented the IHRC as advisor on human rights issues in a number of developing countries. She is currently a consultant to Irish Aid. She has published widely on topics in development, human rights and international relations and given guest lectures in universities in all five continents of the world. She was honoured in 2006 with a festschrift (Trade, Aid and Development, published by UCD Press).
Gerard Quinn
Professor Gerard QuinnGerard Quinn was first appointed a Commissioner in 2001 and re-appointed in 2006. Professor Quinn is a professor of law at NUI, Galway. Called to the Irish Bar in 1983, he holds a Harvard Doctorate in Juridical Science (SJD). He is a former Director of Research at the Law Reform Commission and led the legal research team of the Commission on the Status of Persons with Disabilities. He has worked with the European Commission on general human rights issues as well as on the preparation of EU policy instruments in the field of disability rights. He was Director of an EU Network of Disability Discrimination Lawyers and now co-directs a larger EU Network on Discrimination law across all grounds (age, race, disability, etc.).
Professor Quinn is a former First Vice-President of the European Committee of Social Rights (Council of Europe). He is a member of the research advisory boards of Land Mine Survivors Network (Washington DC) and Soros Foundation EU Monitoring Programme on Accession Countries on Disability (Budapest). He was a member of the United Nations Working Group convened to draft a treaty on the rights of persons with disabilities. He has published widely on economic, social and cultural rights, on the rights of persons with disabilities and on the EU and human rights.
Roger Sweetman
Roger SweetmanRoger Sweetman was appointed a Commissioner in 2006. Until 1981, Mr Sweetman was a solicitor who practised (and later became Partner) in Herman, Good & Co. He then enrolled in the Kings' Inns. From 1979 to 1989 he was a tutor/consultant in Advocacy and Criminal Law to the Law School of the Incorporated Law Society. In 1983 he was conferred with the degree of Barrister-at-Law and was called to the Bar. For the next 19 years, he practised at the Bar both in Dublin and on the Eastern Circuit. Having been appointed to the Director of Public Prosecution's Dublin Prosecution Panel, his practice thereafter was mostly involved in crime, both prosecution and defence.
In 2002 Mr Sweetman was admitted to the Inner Bar, where he has acted as leading Counsel, principally for the defence, in serious criminal cases. He has also been involved in the areas of habeas corpus and judicial review. As a criminal law practitioner, he has been involved in enunciating and vindicating the human rights of accused persons in a range of areas.
Mr Sweetman has twice been short-listed for appointment to the European Court of Human Rights. In 2008 he was appointed to the panel of independent Chairmen to preside over Garda Disciplinary enquiries.
Katherine Zappone
Dr Katherine ZapponeKatherine Zappone was first appointed a Commissioner in 2001 and re-appointed in 2006. Dr Zappone is Director of 'The Centre for Progressive Change' offering services to individuals, groups and organisations who are building a new social order in Ireland, based on the principles of social justice, equality and human rights. As former Chief Executive of the National Women's Council in Ireland, she participated in a number of committees and working groups at national, European and international level to advocate women's social and economic rights and gender equality.
Dr Zappone is a former member of the National Economic and Social Council of Ireland and has conducted a number of national research projects in public policy and gender equality, and equality in children's education. She is co-founder and Chair of An Cosán, a large community-based organisation in West Tallaght, Dublin, committed to eradicating poverty through transformative education.
Dr Zappone lectured for a decade in Trinity College Dublin on ethics and human rights, and has lectured in Canada, Australia, Europe, the USA and throughout Ireland. Her most recent publication is authored with her spouse, Anne Louise Gilligan: Our Lives Out Loud: In Pursuit of Justice and Equality. She holds a PhD in Education and Religion from Boston College.