Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC

Ms Gallagher will be a visiting fellow from April to June 2025, during which time she will focus on the pressing issue of impunity for journalists’ deaths, and on creating systematic changes to secure accountability in these cases.

She will also share experiences and learnings with the institute’s journalist fellows and with the rest of the institute’s community.

Ms Gallagher, who was born in Dublin and now works in London, has acted over the past 25 years in many leading human rights cases in the UK courts, at the European Court of Human Rights, at the Privy Council and before international bodies.

She has particular expertise in state accountability, media freedom, journalists’ safety and arbitrary detention. She has secured the freedom of many wrongly detained journalists, cartoonists, writers and activists worldwide. 

Her caseload includes leading the international legal teams for Maria Ressa (Philippines), Jimmy Lai (Hong Kong), Jose Rubén Zamora (Guatemala), BBC News Persian (Iran) and Daphne Caruana Galizia (Malta).

Alongside her practice, Ms Gallagher is a commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, an adjunct professor at University College Dublin, Ireland’s special rapporteur on child protection and an associate tenant at Doughty Street Chambers in London.