Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC is a human rights lawyer and barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, and in February 2023 she was appointed as Ireland’s Special Rapporteur on Child Protection. She has acted in many landmark cases before the European Court of Human Rights, international tribunals and the UK, including representing bereaved families and survivors of the 7/7 London Bombings and the Hillsborough disaster and acting in test cases which have changed the law on issues including the rights of children in police custody, State obligations to victims and survivors of domestic abuse and child sexual abuse, and abortion in Northern Ireland.
Caoilfhionn has particular expertise in State accountability and Article 2 ECHR obligations; children’s rights; women’s rights and gender-based violence; media law and open justice; and arbitrary detention. She has acted for and secured the release of imprisoned journalists, human rights defenders, peaceful protestors, cartoonists and bloggers in a number of countries, including Egypt, Iran, UAE and Equatorial Guinea. Caoilfhionn is an expert in accountability for crimes against journalists. Her current cases include leading the international legal teams for the family of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, assassinated in Malta in 2017; for pro-democracy activist and media owner Jimmy Lai, imprisoned in Hong Kong; for over 150 BBC News Persian journalists targeted by Iran; and (jointly with colleague Amal Clooney) for Maria Ressa, the Nobel Peace Prize winning journalist in the Philippines.
She has given expert evidence on human rights issues to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, UNESCO, and Parliamentary inquiries in the Council of Europe, UK and Australia. She has also advised the UN on children’s rights issues for child soldiers kidnapped by Boko Haram. Alongside her practice as a barrister and her role as Special Rapporteur, Caoilfhionn is an Adjunct Full Professor at University College Dublin and sits part-time as a Coroner. She was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2017 for her “outstanding commitment to enabling the Human Rights Act’s protections.” Caoilfhionn is a graduate of UCD, the King’s Inns and Cambridge University.