Horsehair Wigs

From supporting Ukrainian justice actors in investigating and prosecuting international crimes to the weakening of the rule of law and the climate crisis, our guest this month, Aonghus Kelly has a lot to talk about.

Aonghus is an international criminal and human rights lawyer and has just finished his stint as head of the international crimes’ legal unit for the European Union Advisory Mission (EUAM), Ukraine. Aonghus and his team ...

What does the rule of law mean? That’s the question on our podcast this month, with our guest Maria McCloskey, Irish Rule of Law International’s (IRLI) Executive Director.

There is no one-agreed definition of the rule of law, but broadly it’s a set of principles upon which a foundation of a society is built and governed - politically, institutionally and legally. Some of the core elements are justice, equality and peace. For Maria:...

On this month’s show, we’re joined by Alia Al Ghussain, a researcher and advisor with Amnesty Tech, who talks about the huge need to centre human rights in the technology sector.

“This is a bad situation and it’s primed to get even worse,” she says, on the back of the move by Meta earlier this year, to end its practice in the US of fact-checking information posted on its platform. The development is seen as a backward step to curry...

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

There’s been a mixed reaction to the move by the ICC. States signed up to the court are obliged to arrest both men ...

The Director of the Climate and Energy Program at the Center for International Environmental Law, Nikki Reisch is our guest on the show this month. Niki talks about the advisory opinion expected this year from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the legal consequences for governments concerning climate change.

The pending opinion comes on the back of two weeks of climate hearings in The Hague in December. In the largest cas...

Our podcast this month is a personal and professional tribute to a dear former Irish Rule of Law International colleague – international criminal and human rights lawyer James Douglas, who sadly died earlier this year. One of his best friends and fellow human rights lawyer, Pat de Brún reflects on his life and work. Pat is Head of Big Tech Accountability & Deputy Director of Amnesty Tech at Amnesty International.

James, from Du...

The Executive Director of the Trust Fund for Victims (TFV) at the International Criminal Court (ICC), Deborah Ruiz Verduzco is our guest on the show this month.

The Trust Fund for Victims at the ICC is a central part of the court’s mandate: the reparative justice pillar of the court, giving effe...

Our guest this month is Dr Seán Columb, who for over 10 years has been investigating the illegal organ trade.

Dr Columb is a legal academic - a senior lecturer in law at the School of Law and Social Justice at the University of Liverpool. Since 2014, he has spoken to over 40 people from countries including Sudan, South Sudan and Eritrea, who were fleeing conflict or the legacy of conflict, and who sold a kidney out of economic nece...

Governments and energy companies will be held legally responsible for past decisions when it comes to the energy sector, as justice takes centre stage. That’s the argument from this month’s guest - Irish Professor, Raphael Heffron.

Professor Heffron is a Professor in Energy Law, Energy Justice and the Social Contract at the Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, Pau, France. He’s also a qualified Barrister-at-Law. His work focus...

It’s been dubbed litigation terrorism – an investor protection regime that’s stalling climate action and instead paying polluters. On this episode of Horsehair Wigs, we’re talking about investor state dispute settlement clauses or ISDS mechanisms with Stéphanie Caligara, a French qualified lawyer and consultant with the Global Legal Action Network. Stéphanie focuses on environmental and climate litigation, human rights and corporat...

We speak with Rhea Kneifati on this month’s show – a legal expert, specialising in sexual and gender-based investigations. She talks about the significant problem of the disappearance of women in Mexico, where there are currently 27,000 missing women.

Rhea was deployed by Justice Rapid Response - an NGO with a roster of experts investigating international crimes and serious human rights violations – to work with a Mexican strategic...

On the show this month, we talk to Ray Murphy, a human rights lawyer and professor at the Irish Centre for Human Rights in Galway. Ray talks about the current situation in Gaza and the legality of the Israel-Hamas war.

Ray says he believes the only way the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza will be truly tackled is through international law and the framework of international law. But he, too, stresses the importance of political w...

We sit down with some of Irish Rule of Law International’s (IRLI) Malawi team this month to discuss how Malawi's poverty is affecting its justice institutions. IRLI’s programme in the country is strategically designed, in collaboration with its partners on the ground, to provide access to justice to people accused of crimes in Malawi. Malawi is a country with a prison population of seventeen thousand and only 700 lawyers.

We hear f...

On Horsehair Wigs this month, we speak with Sarai Chisala-Templehoff, a human rights and social justice lawyer. Sarai is the Founder of the Gender and Justice Unit in Malawi – an organisation educating women on their legal rights, in a hugely patriarchal society.

Much of the work that the Gender and Justice Unit does centers around women’s access to justice in the country – through working with partners, including Irish rule of Law...

On the show this month, we’re talking to international human rights lawyer, Doreen Chen. She talks about the situation for human rights defenders globally and she also discusses her human rights centric input in the drawing up for various global authorities of counter-terrorism responses.

Doreen is the co-founder of a non-profit, Destination Justice, which she also runs. The organisation advances human rights and the rule of law. I...

On Horsehair Wigs this month, we’re in conversation with international criminal and human rights lawyer, Kate Gibson, who talks about the effectiveness of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in delivering justice.

The ICC is made up of 123-member states, but many governments are not ICC parties, having not signed up to the Rome Statute, which governs it. These countries include the United States, China, Israel, Russia and India....

On the programme this month, we discuss the psychosocial impact of the civil war in Sierra Leone with human rights activist, Binta Mansaray.

Binta, a Sierra Leonean, talks about the double victimisation of child soldiers, who are now adults, many homeless, and involved in criminality. She also talks about the legacy the conflict has had – a conflict which had been fuelled and funded by the country’s natural resources, diamonds. We ...

Our guest on Horsehair Wigs this month is Maud Sarliève, a Human Rights and International Criminal Lawyer advocating for creative legal thinking to mitigate climate change and protect the environment. Maud has travelled and worked internationally, on UN backed tribunals, for the United Nations office on Drugs and Crime and for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, among others.

In this interview with Maud, we discuss what the prop...

On our show this month, we speak to Gearóid Ó Cuinn who teaches transnational human rights litigation at the Irish Centre for Human Rights in Galway, Ireland. Gearóid is also head of the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) – an organisation which pursues justice across borders for communities directly impacted by human rights abuses. Gearóid and his team have a very interesting portfolio of work, and are currently involved in a land...