Mr O’Flaherty has dedicated his career to advancing human rights through international institutions, academia and public service, including almost two decades with the United Nations, where he played a pioneering role in integrating human rights into peacekeeping and peace processes. 

He established the first UN human rights field operation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and led human rights operations in Sierra Leone before coordinating UN human rights programmes across the Asia-Pacific region. He has also served as Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, Director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and professor of Human Rights Law.

The honorary degree was conferred by UCD President Professor Orla Feely during a special ceremony at UCD’s O’Reilly Hall.

Mr O’Flaherty said: “It’s the most enormous honour to come back to my alma mater for only the second conferring I’ve been to, my own was the other one.

“I’m massively grateful to the university. It also gives me a chance to express appreciation for the fantastic foundational education in law that I received here. Human rights was always an interest, and I picked it up here.

“We have to have a world that’s decent, in which everybody’s integrity and dignity is respected and honoured and there is really only one universally agreed road map to honour human dignity and that is the principles of human rights.

“We absolutely need young people to be invested in human rights, to stand up for human rights, to fight for human rights. They will bring the energy back into this struggle that we so desperately need now. It’s a very hard time to stand up for human rights. Young people have energy and they have hope and it is with that hopefulness that we will be able to move into a better future”.