As part of our ongoing Lawyer Abroad series, we spoke with Pat de Brún, an Irish human rights lawyer currently based in London. Pat serves as Head of Big Tech Accountability and Deputy Director of Amnesty Tech, Amnesty International’s global programme on technology and human rights. His path has taken him from Carlow to Cambodia, Berlin and beyond, working on everything from international criminal justice to grassroots activism and tech accountability. Pat reflects on his career, his motivations and the urgent challenges facing the human rights field today.

Dr. John Reynolds of Maynooth University discusses the reaction of states to the  International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant over suspected war crimes in Gaza.

Human rights lawyer and professor at the Irish Centre for Human Rights in Galway, Ray Murphy talks about the current situation in Gaza and the legality of the Israel-Hamas war.

Our guest on Horsehair Wigs this month is Maud Sarliève, Human Rights and International Criminal Lawyer advocating for creative legal thinking to mitigate climate change and protect the environment. Maud explains ecocide, a newly proposed international crime.

As you may have already heard, James Douglas recently became our new Executive Director. With us since 2020 as Director of Programmes, James has already made significant contributions to our work and brings with him eight years of previous experience working on different human rights issues for civil society and the United Nations. Following his appointment, he kindly agreed to answer a few questions for us.

In the latest in our series, profiling Irish and Northern Irish lawyers and jurists who have worked abroad, or are working abroad, we spoke with Barrister Tara O’Leary, from County Kerry, who was called to the bar in England and Wales. She now practices in chambers in London, specialising in public law. Before that, Tara spent five years working on human rights and international criminal law in Ireland, the UK, Uganda and the Balkans.

In the latest in our series, profiling Irish and Northern Irish lawyers and jurists who have worked abroad, or are working abroad, we spoke with Eric Tully, a lawyer from Co. Kildare. Eric works primarily in the field of International Criminal Law and since 2009, he has worked for the defence of five separate accused before three different Tribunals (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) and he currently works on the defence team for an Accused before the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) in the Hague. He also worked as a Legal Officer with the UN peacekeeping mission to Southern Lebanon, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

In the latest in our series, profiling Irish and Northern Irish lawyers and jurists who have worked abroad, or are working abroad, we spoke with Paul Bradfield, who grew up in County Meath, and now works as a Prosecutor in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in Dublin.

In the latest in our series profiling Irish and Northern Irish lawyers and barristers who have worked, or are working abroad, we spoke with Alison de Bruir, a barrister, originally from Kildare and now living and working in The Hague. Alison has been working as an international prosecution lawyer with the UN and the EU for nearly a decade.

In the latest in our series profiling Irish and Northern Irish Lawyers who have worked, or are working abroad, we spoke with Cóman Kenny from Roscommon who is currently working as a lawyer with the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, which was created by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate the most serious international crimes and violations of international law committed in Myanmar since 2011. Cóman previously worked as a lawyer in the prosecution at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), commonly known as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.