Letter from Ms Caitríona Doyle, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of Ireland to the Council of Europe, to Ms Chatzivassiliou-Tsovilis, Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly, dated 23 February 2024.
I have the honour to refer to your letter of 1 February 2023 inviting the Government to submit a list of three candidates for election as a judge of the European Court of Human Rights in respect of Ireland, pursuant to Article 22 of the European Convention on Human Rights (“the Convention”).
[…]
ln light of the foregoing, the Government of Ireland nominates the following candidates for election as a judge of the European Court of Human Rights (in alphabetical order):
[…]
On 1 February 2023 the Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe invited Ireland to submit a list of three candidates for election as a judge of the European Court of Human Rights in respect of Ireland.
On 15 September 2023 an advertisement seeking applications for nomination for election as a judge of the European Court of Human Rights was published on the websites of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Public Appointments Service, together with a candidate information booklet.
This advertisement was also published in the main national newspapers (the Irish Times, the Irish Independent, and the Examiner), and on the LinkedIn account of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
The advertisement, candidate information booklet, and template curriculum vitae, were furnished by the Department of the Foreign Affairs to the following:
The judiciary
Universities
Professional bodies
National human rights institutions
Applicants were requested to submit a letter of application, accompanied by a curriculum vitae in the format prescribed by the Parliamentary Assembly, by 5:00 pm on 9 October 2023. Seventeen applications were received by the prescribed deadline.
All applications were considered by an expert panel convened by the Attorney General, comprising –
The expert panel considered the applications in light of the criteria for office prescribed by Article 21 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and having regard to the Guidelines of the Committee of Ministers on the selection of candidates for the post of judge at the European Court of Human Rights (CM(2012)40-final).
The expert panel shortlisted 10 applicants, and interviews were held on 6 and 7 November 2023. The expert panel recommended three candidates (in alphabetical order) to the Minister for Foreign Affairs on 7 November 2023, and the list of three names was approved by the Government 28 November 2023.
Name: GAYNOR, Fergal
Sex: male
Date and place of birth: 18 October 1971 in Blantyre, Malawi
Nationality : Irish
Degree of Barrister-at-Law
Postgraduate diploma in legal practice
Master of Philosophy in International Relations
Admitted to practice law in England in 1999 and in Ireland in 2008.
2020-present: Judge, Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC), The Hague
2021-present: Associate, Doughty Street Chambers
2019-present: Reserve International Co-Prosecutor, Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
2017-2019: Commission for International Justice and Accountability, Head, Syrian Regime Team and Head, Myanmar Team
2015-2016: Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Senior Assistant Prosecutor
2012-2020: International Criminal Court, Lead Counsel for Victims, based in The Hague and Nairobi
2008-2009: Circuit Court, High Court, and Supreme Court of Ireland, Barrister-at-law
2007-2008: International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Tanzania., Trial Attorney, Office of the Prosecutor
2001-2007 and 2009-2012: International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, The Hague, Trial Attorney, Office of the Prosecutor
February-August 2007: United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission, Beirut., Legal Adviser
1997-2001: Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Associate
All my professional activities have been in the legal field. I have never held public office. I am not a member of any political party.
. Acceptance speech on human rights protection as recipient of the Praeses Elit award, Law Society of Trinity College Dublin, 2023.
. Guest speaker, Doughty Street International Justice Day 2021, on strengthening the rule of law in international criminal justice as a means of reinforcing national, regional and international security.
. Delivered the annual Owen M. Kupferschmid Memorial Lecture in 2021, Boston College, on evidence and atrocity trials.
. Invited speaker at the annual Harvard Human Rights Symposium, Harvard Law School, 2015.
. Invited speaker at panel on ethics in international courts at the annual meeting of the American Society of International Law, 2015.
N/A.
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Published on a range of issues relating to accountability for major human rights violations, due process, and improving the efficiency of judicial proceedings before international courts. These include:
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In June 2020, I was one of four persons shortlisted by the Committee on the Election of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. From June 2020 to February 2021, I participated in dozens of bilateral meetings, by Zoom and in person, with representatives of almost all of the 123 States Parties to the Rome Statute. I came second in the election of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
I confirm that I will take up permanent residence in Strasbourg if elected a judge on the Court.
Name: NÍ RAIFEARTAIGH, Úna
Sex: female
Date and place of birth: 18 August 1966, Syracuse, New York, United States of America
Nationalities: Irish and American (I have lived in Ireland since the age of 2)
Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL), University College Dublin– 1988
Degree of Barrister-at-Law, The Honourable Society of the Kings Inns – 1991 (Awarded Brooke Scholarship for coming first in class)
Diploma in Forensic Computing, University College Dublin-1999
Primary and Secondary Education:
I received an Easter Week scholarship for obtaining the highest marks in the 1983 Leaving Certificate examination in the category of Modern Languages. This provided me with full fees for my third-level education (University, and Kings Inns).
I was also awarded a one-month trip to Germany based on my Junior Certificate results in German in 1981; this was awarded by the German Pädagogischer Austauschdienst (PAD), a public organisation in Germany working on behalf of the Federal States to promote international exchange and cooperation in the school sector.
As a Judge, I have sat both alone (in the High Court for three years) and in a collegiate court (in the Court of Appeal for four years). I have heard cases involving oral evidence from witnesses (including criminal cases) and cases conducted on affidavit evidence and transcripts.
To date I have written approximately 150 judgments in my 7-year career as a judge. These cover a wide range of topics including: criminal law, immigration & asylum, banking, probate, international child abduction (civil), public law/administrative law/judicial review, EU law, conflicts of law, planning law, constitutional law, and more. I am one of the very small number (2-3) of judges on the Court of Appeal who sits on both the civil and criminal divisions of the Court.
I have also participated in the revision and drafting of judgments by other judges in the Court of Appeal, which amount to some 100-200 judgments.
As a judge, many of my judgments have involved analysis and application of the European Convention of Human Rights. Some examples:
I was a practising Barrister for 23 years (1993-2016) before becoming a judge.
My practice as a barrister primarily involved criminal cases and cases involving issues of constitutional law and the European Convention on Human Rights.
The criminal cases ranged across the whole spectrum to include murder, terrorist offences, sexual offences, dishonesty offences, firearms and explosives cases, and so on. I worked both in the jury-trial courts and in the non-jury Special Criminal Court.
I did a large number of high profile cases including murder, conspiracy to murder, gangland and so-called ‘membership’ cases (membership of an unlawful organisation). Of particular note, perhaps, is my involvement in the successful prosecution of several Directors of Anglo-Irish Bank for fraud-type offences after the financial collapse in 2008. I worked closely with the DPP in the preparation and presentation of these cases for approximately 4-5 years.
I was also involved in a case of a double killing where it emerged that a vulnerable adult had wrongly confessed to murder (Dean Lyons) and ultimately another man, Mark Nash, was successfully prosecuted for the murders (known as the “Grangegorman murders”) on the basis of DNA evidence. During the many years of my involvement with that sequence of events and trials connected with it, I became very familiar with and interested in the concept of vulnerable persons and how they can be “suggestible” when being interviewed in policy custody.
Naturally in my career as a criminal barrister I became familiar with all the usual forms of evidence, ranging across scientific trace evidence, electronic and telecommunications evidence, interception evidence, tracking devices, confessions, psychiatric evidence, and of course the oral evidence of professionals such as the police and pathologists and lay witnesses whether adult or child. I also developed a particular interest in problematic issues associated with trials involving child victims and have frequently spoken at public conferences on this topic.
I once acted for a deaf man who was accused of a serious crime (ultimately acquitted) and learned a lot about the particular challenges facing deaf people in the criminal justice system, both from interacting with this man through interpreters and by holding consultations with an expert, and reading the literature in the area.
I regularly acted in cases where there was evidence from psychiatrists and psychologists, such as cases involving the defence of insanity, or cases where the accused had significant personal challenges including mental health and addiction problems.
For some years, I acted for a hospital unit which assesses children who report child sexual abuse (St. Louise’s Unit, Crumlin Hospital, Dublin) and spoke with the staff of the unit as well as the Director (Dr. Imelda Ryan) many times about that area of work and its challenges in the context of forthcoming court proceedings.
As a barrister, I was also involved in a number of special public inquiries:
As Reid Professor Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology, Trinity College Dublin (1991-1996), I prepared and lectured criminal law to a large class of first years, and also delivered smaller group classes to third and fourth years in the subjects of criminology and penology. I have maintained a keen interest in academia and regularly attend and speak at academic conferences.
As a Researcher with the Law Reform Commission (1988-1991), I prepared draft reports and did so in the areas of defamation and family courts/mediation primarily. This provided me with a useful and life-long interest in law reform generally, as well as these particular topics.
I have not held any public office or post other than that of judge, although I acted regularly (when I was a barrister) for the Director of Public Prosecutions and for the Attorney General.
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I have never been involved in any political party or movement.
I am and always have been a regular speaker at conferences and seminars.
For example, during the past legal/academic year alone (October 2022-July 2023), my speaking engagements included:-
Before becoming a judge, I was a regular speaker at the annual conference of the Director of Public Prosecutions and conferences organised by universities or other organisations, frequently in the area of the intersection between criminal law and human rights: (see for example: Úna Ní Raifeartaigh, "The European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003 – A Practitioner''s Perspective, a paper delivered to Re-balancing Criminal Justice in Ireland: A Question of Rights": Conference at the University College Cork Centre for Criminal Justice and Human Rights, June 29, 2007).
I was a co-founder of body called the Criminal Law Forum, designed to bring practitioners and academics in the area of criminal law together several times a year to discuss topics of mutual interest, and to try to cross-fertilise thinking on both sides. It is currently located in the University of Maynooth, where I am also Adjunct Professor.
So far my involvement has been limited to discussions and meetings with Professor Mary Rogan of Trinity College Dublin, current President of the IPPF
I act as Mentor in the Bar of Ireland’s “Women in Law Mentoring programme”, with a new ‘mentee’ every year who I meet on a regular basis for the purpose of supporting and offering advice. I was on the organising Committee for 2-3 years and helped to create and organize group events for the programme.
I have been Chair of an internal Committee of Judges for the last 4-6 years which oversees all the work of the Research Office, the Judicial Assistants and the Judicial Library. Among other things, this Committee oversaw the introduction of a Knowledge Hub (a database of information for judges) and a fortnightly Newsletter for Judges, summarising recent legal developments (including the jurisprudence of the ECtHR and the CJEU).
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Unusually for an Irish child, I spent three years in French schools, as follows. • Age 9, Fifth class/CM1, in local French primary school, Bures sur Yvette, Paris, France • Age 11, Sixth class/CM2, in Ecole Franco-Irlandaise, Hollypark, Dublin • Age 17, Sixth year/Premiere in Lycée Blaise Pascale, Orsay, Paris, France. My French is still very good but I would probably need to learn more professional and legal French in order to employ it at work if I were appointed to the European Court. I love languages so would be very happy to pursue any courses recommended for me. It links in with my love of travel and would be part of why I would very much like to live and work in Strasbourg. |
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I attended an Irish-speaking primary school and there was much Irish spoken in our family when I was growing up. I currently visit and stay in the West Kerry Gaeltacht every year and use the language as often as I can at work or in personal interactions. As a judge, I have conducted hearings entirely in the Irish language and written judgments; and indeed made the only preliminary reference in the Irish language to the CJEU to date (see MacFhlannchadha v. Minister for Agriculture [2021] IEHC 647 and C-64/20, EU: C: 2021:207) |
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I learned German in secondary school and have spent a number of summers in Germany. It is rusty now and could use some brushing up. |
I confirm. I love languages so would be very happy to pursue any courses recommended for me.
I confirm that I would be happy to live in Strasbourg if appointed. Not only are my husband and I very interested in living abroad, but my children are pursuing studies and work abroad. My 20 year-old is currently studying in Amsterdam, Netherlands; and my 24 year-old is planning to move to Berlin when he finishes his studies in Trinity College at the end of this academic year.
Because I lived in France for two separate years as a child and young person, I have experience of living abroad for two separate academic years. We also travelled abroad a lot as a family for shorter periods when I was growing up because the nature of my father’s scientific work took him to universities and academic institutions all over the world. Incidentally, that is why I was born in the United States; the family was there for four years in the 1960s and I was born during that time. We grew up with lots of people of other nationalities coming to our house in Dublin, and our household was generally very international in outlook. Both my father and mother spoke and wrote French, German and Irish fluently. My two sons went to an all-Irish speaking primary school and the German secondary school in Clonskeagh (St. Kilian’s). As a family, we are very pro-languages, so to speak. I originally studied law with a view to combining it with my languages and perhaps specialising in EU law, but was drawn to criminal law and human rights because of the subject-matter. However, it has always been a personal and professional ambition of mine to combine my law work with my love of languages and travel. Now that our children are young adults and both will be living abroad anyway, the timing of the position in Strasbourg would be perfect for our household.
At a personal level, I have great interest in music and sports and would enjoy pursuing those interests outside Ireland. I did so when I was a teenager living in France and found it to be a great way to connect with people.
I am co-operative by nature. I enjoyed teamwork in various cases when I was a barrister, and already have four years’ experience on a collegiate court (the Court of Appeal) which I like very much.
I am adaptable and flexible by nature and always interested in meeting new people and going to new places. Because of my upbringing (including going to six different schools in three different languages), I am used to new beginnings in unfamiliar surroundings, and relish the challenge of learning new work methods and developing new relationships.
Finally, I am very proud of my Irish nationality and heritage and would be deeply honoured to represent my country abroad in the field of human rights. It would in effect be the coming together of my most cherished values at both a professional and personal level.
I confirm.
Name: Ó CINNÉIDE, Colm
Sex: male
Date and place of birth : 10th January 1973, Dublin City.
Nationality : Irish
None – but see my experience as a member of the European Committee of Social Rights for ten years, outlined below.
N/A.
N/A.
I have published over 110 academic books and papers on relevant themes. The following are the most relevant to the current application.
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Yes, I can confirm this if required in my case.
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Yes, I confirm this.