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Kieran Mulvey is the current Chairperson of the board. He is the former Director General of the Irish Workplace Relations Commission and Consultant with the International Labour Organisation and the European Union.
Roja Fazaeli is Established Professor of Law and Islamic Studies at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, University of Galway. Professor Fazaeli has published widely on the subjects of women's rights in Iran, the relationship between human rights and religion, women religious authorities, and Islamic feminisms. She was previously Professor in Islamic Civilisations at Trinity College Dublin. As the recipient of a European Research Council Consolidator Grant she is the principal investigator of a five-year project (2023-2028) on Building Conceptual and Methodological Expertise for the Study of Gender, Agency, and Authority in Islam (BILQIS). Professor Fazaeli is a member of a Marie Skodowska-Curie Actions funded project investigating the nature of hate in society (NETHATE).
She is currently deputy chairperson of the Front Line Defenders Board, and additionally serves as the chairperson of the board of directors of the Immigrant Council of Ireland and a member of the board of directors for Scholars at Risk Europe and Iran Academia.
A highly skilled, competent and committed lawyer and human rights defender, Arnold Tsunga has professional experience that spans private and public practice in law, politics and public administration, international NGO leadership and management, and sports administration and management. Currently the Principal Managing Partner at Tsunga Law International (TLI), a law firm with a strong international human rights law portfolio and Convenor at Civic Space Network in Africa, the Elections and Rule of Law Expert for the Africa Judges and Jurists Forum (AJJF), he is the immediate past Resident Senior Director at the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Zimbabwe, the immediate past Africa Director at the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), founding Executive Director at Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) and founding Chairperson of Southern Africa Human Rights Defenders network (SAHRDN). He has competence and expertise in governance, human rights and the rule of law; impact/strategic/public interest litigation; elections, politics, public administration and policy; leadership and management; strategic planning, organisational development and institution building; project management; mentoring and performance evaluation, movement and network building, donor relations and resource mobilisation. Arnold has received international recognition for his human rights activism including the Martin Ennals Award for human rights defenders.
Mary Jane N. Real is a Co-Founder of Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights Asia and the Pacific – the first rapid response mechanism for women human rights defenders headquartered within the Asia Pacific region. She is a founding member and former Coordinator of the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition. A lawyer, she helped establish the Alternative Law Groups network in the Philippines. She is a long-time advocate of women’s rights having worked with women’s rights and human rights organisations in Asia and internationally including as Regional Coordinator of Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development.
Verónica Vidal is the Solidarity Tactic Lead at the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID). She is a long-term feminist activist for women's rights and human rights at the local level and internationally. She has worked as a researcher and advocate in Uruguay and Mexico with a focus on regional integration processes, international cooperation for development, the environment and civil society, as well as in building networks, documentation of attacks and developing protection approaches with Women Human Rights Defenders from a feminist perspective.
Jim Conway is the founder of the Print and Display Group, one of Ireland's largest print companies, where he is now Chairman. Print and Display is one of Europe's market leaders in the screen, digital and litho production of outdoor poster, bus advertising and point-of-purchase materials. He also has a number of other media interests in Ireland and Eastern Europe.
Maria Mulcahy is the CEO of the Iris O’Brien Foundation and the Irish-based Head of Philanthrophy for the Digicel Group. She was involved with "People in Need" from 1988 to 2000. She was responsible for organising the RTE telethons, which raised €28 million. She was Director of Fundraising for the 2003 Special Olympics World Games.
Dermot Hayes is an Investment Director with Island Capital managing a diverse portfolio of investments in telecommunications, media, healthcare, leisure, property and many other private investments. He has completed more than 50 investments and disposals across a portfolio of companies and raised over US$8bn in public and private market transactions with investee companies. He is a Director of Island Capital and a non-executive director of a number of portfolio companies including Island Green Power, Beacon Hospital, Actavo Group Limited and various Digicel subsidiaries. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.
Eamon Gilmore is the former European Union’s Special Representative for Human Rights. He is a former Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland, and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade (2011- 2014). Since 2015, he has been the EU Special Envoy for the Peace Process in Colombia. He was a member of Dáil Éireann (Irish Parliament) from 1989 until 2016, and was Leader of the Irish Labour Party (2007-2014). He served on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (2004-2007) and was Chairperson-in-Office of the OSCE (2012). Prior to his election to Dáil Éireann, he worked as a trade union officer (1978-1989), and he was President of the Union of Students in Ireland (1976-1978). He is an Adjunct Professor at the School of Law and Government in Dublin City University and in 2017 was Visiting Practitioner Chair at the School of Public Policy, Central European University, Budapest. He is a graduate (Psychology) of the National University of Ireland, Galway, which has also conferred him with an Honorary Doctorate in Laws. He has received several international honours and awards for his work on Peace and his leadership on human rights issues. Eamon Gilmore was born in 1955, grew up on a small farm in Caltra, County Galway. He has lived in Shankill, Dublin for most of his adult life. He is married to Carol Hanney and they have one daughter and two sons.
Past Board Members
Denis O'Brien (until 2024)
David Sykes (until 2024)
