News & Events

The Irish Centre for Human Rights hosted our annual human rights lecture on October 24th with a Ukrainian judge from the European Court of Human Rights, Judge Mykola Gnatovsky. The lecture, 'Accountability for crimes in Russia's War against Ukraine', took place in the Human Biology Building, University of Galway. The lecture is held in memory of James Kingston, the former Legal Advisor of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs.

Dr Mykola Gnatovskyy holds an LLM (1999) and PhD (2002) in International Law. He is the author of many publications on European and international human rights law, as well as international humanitarian law and international criminal law. Since 2002, he has taught at the Institute of International Relations of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and cooperated with the International Committee of the Red Cross as an academic partner.

In 2009–2021 Dr Gnatovskyy was a member of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT). He served as Vice-President of the CPT for two years (2013–2015) and as President of the CPT for six years (2015–2021). In June 2022, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) elected Dr  Gnatovskyy as judge to the European Court of Human Rights in respect of Ukraine.

The annual human rights lecture is supported by the Irish Branch of the International Law Association.