aoife duffy 

Contact: aoifeduffyyahoo.com

Qualifications: BA (Applied Psychology), University College Cork; M.Phil (International Peace Studies), Trinity College Dublin; LLM (International Human Rights Law), National University of Ireland, Galway. Aoife Duffy is a PhD candidate at the Irish Centre for Human Rights and was awarded an IRCHSS/DFA scholarship under its conflict resolution strand (2009-2010).

The ’field’ of transitional justice is at a crossroads. Many claims made by advocates of transitional justice initiatives remain little more than untested assumptions. In order to facilitate the evolution and maturation of transitional justice, the discipline needs empirical grounding and an objective knowledge base. Do truth commissions assist in reconciliation? Do criminal prosecutions of those most culpable for human rights abuses and atrocities committed under a repressive regime really have a deterrent effect? More specifically, this research will examine the positive or negative effects that transitional justice mechanisms have in societies emerging from protracted ethnic or identity conflict. Are there specific types of mechanisms that accommodate competing ethno-nationalisms during transition? Moreover, who should be the lead authority that controls the design and development of post-ethnic conflict interventions? Where does transitional justice decision-making derive its legitimacy? A socio-legal approach is considered the most appropriate lens through which to examine how universal human rights principles promulgated by international transitional justice practitioners converge with local priorities, histories and cultures.

oife Daly teaches Children's Rights, Children and the Law and Family Law. Aoife has worked and researched widely on children's rights and has held a number of N.G.O. and academic positions. She has worked for the Children's Research Centre in Trinity College Dublin, Amnesty International (as an Executive Committee member), Save the Children UK, as well as disability N.G.O. Rehab Group. She has also taught international law at Dublin City University and has taught children's rights at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland Galway as a Visiting Lecturer since 2005. She is also Assistant Editor of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Human Rights Law.

Aoife received a degree in Applied Psychology from University College Cork in 2002. Her thesis examined the accuracy of eyewitness testimony  of young children. She then went on to do a Masters in International  Human Rights Law at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, N.U.I. Galway.  After an internship with Palestinian Human Rights Organisation Al-Haq  in Ramallah, West Bank, she wrote her thesis which was entitled 'The  Right to Education of Palestinian Children in the Occupied Palestinian  Territories'. Aoife then completed a Ph.D. in human rights law (entitled 'The International Legal Right of Children to be Heard in Civil Law Proceedings Affecting them' ) at the School of Law, Trinity College Dublin. She researched implementation of Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in family and child care law, and the extent to which children's views are heard and taken into account in such proceedings. Aoife has spoken and published widely on the area.

Aoife is also a member of the Research Panel for the Irish Office of the Ombudsman for Children, and of the Rights of the Child UK coalition, a working group which works to progress children’s rights in the UK.

 Publications

’A Truth Commission for Northern Ireland?’, 4(1) International Journal of Transitional Justice (2010).

 ’A Truth Commission for Northern Ireland? Accountability, Denial and Post-conflict Truth Recovery’, Martin Monograph Series (2009), The Martin Institute, University of Idaho. Monograph 8.

’Expulsion to Face Torture? Non-refoulement in International Law’, 20(3) International Journal of Refugee Law (2008), pp.373-390.

'Indigenous Peoples’ Land Rights: Developing a Sui Generis Approach to Ownership and Restitution’, 15(4) International Journal of Minority and Group Rights (2008), pp. 505-538.

Conferences

’Human Rights & Conflict in Darfur’, 5th Global Conference on War, Virtual War and Human Security, 05-07 May 2008, Budapest, Hungary.

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