With democracy under increasing threat at home and abroad, the conference will reflect on the past 50 years and consider some of the most pressing challenges now including the manipulation of online spaces through recommender systems and disinformation, the right to protest, media freedoms and restrictions on freedom of association and expression.

In June 1976, a group of activists, academics, trade unionists and lawyers gathered in Trinity for the inaugural meeting of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. The driving force for the organisation’s establishment was South African lawyer and founder of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement, Kader Asmal. At the time a law lecturer in Trinity, he later returned to South Africa and became a member of Nelson Mandela’s first cabinet. Other notable members of the first executive committee appointed on that day included future Irish president and then senator, Mary Robinson.

Mr Asmal will be remembered at the conference by Lawson Naidoo, friend of the Asmal family and executive secretary of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution, an organisation founded by Kader.

Speakers including former journalist and founding commissioner of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) Conor Brady, LGBTI+ rights campaigner Kieran Rose and former Supreme Court Judge Marie Baker will reflect on some of the landmark moments for rights and freedoms since 1976.

Dr Eileen Culloty (DCU), Dr Johnny Ryan (ICCL), Dr Illan rua Wall (University of Galway) and Dr Róisín Costello BL (Trinity) will consider the current and future threats to fundamental freedoms and democracy, including media freedoms, digital rights and restrictions on the right to protest.

Barrister and international human rights lawyer, Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, will interview Dr McAleese about her work championing human rights.

ICCL will also launch its new Strategic Plan 2026-2029 at the conference.