THE STEPHEN LIVINGSTONE LECTURE 2022: Human Rights - What’s In It For Us and Do We Care?

The School of Law at Queen’s University Belfast hosts Alyson Kilpatrick (Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission) for an exploration of where human rights are now in Northern Ireland, what might come next and why we should all be concerned.

Alyson Kilpatrick studied law at Queens University Belfast, the Inns of Court School of Law London and the College of Europe Bruges. She was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1992.

Between 2009 and September 2017, Alyson was the Independent Human Rights Legal Advisor to the Northern Ireland Policing Board. During that time, she published annual human rights reports and thematic review reports on, for example: domestic violence; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights; race hate crime; stop and search; child sexual exploitation and; policing with children and young people.

In 2016, she was appointed special legal advisor to the UK’s Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation and continued until September 2021.

In 2018, Alyson conducted, on behalf of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, an independent human rights inspection of An Garda Síochána. She reported in September 2018.

Alyson was appointed to carry out an independent review of the ECHR compliance of a number of NI ‘legacy’ investigations, known as Operation Kenova. Her final report was published on 31 August 2021.

On 1 September 2021, Alyson was appointed Chief Commissioner to the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.