Michael O'Flaherty

[7] In November 2019, on the basis of his published works in the field of human rights, O’Flaherty was awarded the Higher Doctorate in Laws (LLD) by the National University of Ireland[8] He qualified as a solicitor, but did not enter legal practice.

[10] Having written extensively on the ICCPR in the 1990s, O'Flaherty joined the United Nations civil service and held several headquarters and field positions in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

This included coordination of the OHCHR Asia and the Pacific programmes, leadership of field operations in Sierra Leone and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and (2000–02) chairing the UN reference group on human rights and humanitarian action.

[11] According to a CV posted on the European Parliament (LIBE committee) website in 2014, O’Flaherty had at that date published 9 books and some 55 articles and other writings, all in the field of human rights.

He was 'rapporteur' (principal drafter) for the Human Rights Committee's General Comment on Article 19 of ICCPR, finally adopted on 21 July 2011 after two years of negotiation.

My own boss when I worked in Bosnia, the former prime minister of Poland Tadeusz Mazowiecki, resigned in protest at the ignoring of his warning about the imminent massacre at Srebrenica.

I recall sitting in tears on a veranda in Freetown, listening to the worsening artillery fire in nearby hills at a moment when the world seemed to have interest in only one conflict: the one far away in Kosovo.

What kept my colleagues and I going were the small achievements: protecting some people simply because of our presence, improving conditions in detention facilities, helping to ensure that food and aid were distributed equitably, seeking to keep the situation of innocent victims of war to the forefront of peacemakers' attention.