Keynote Speakers

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ICCL Publishes ground breaking guide to implementing human rights reform of Gardai.
Photo Chris Bellew /Fennell Photography Copyright 2018

Alyson Kilpatrick – Conference Chair

Alyson is a barrister with extensive experience of litigation in the higher courts in a range of public law and human rights cases. She has published extensively including legal textbooks, law reports’ series and encyclopedia of law and practice. For example, she was a contributing author to The Human Rights Act 1998: A Practitioner’s Guide and the author of Discrimination Law and Housing Law in Northern Ireland.

In 2009, she was a member of the Irish Government’s delegation to Timor Leste on UNSCR1325 where she provided recommendations for a Code of Conduct for UN military personnel overseas. She is Chair of the Gender Identity Panel NI and Vice-Chair of the Northern Ireland Co-Ownership Housing Association. She is a member of the Board of One Safe Place Justice Centre.

Until November 2017, she was Chair of the Board of the Simon Community Northern Ireland. Between 2009 and September 2017, Alyson was the Independent Human Rights Legal Advisor to the Northern Ireland Policing Board. 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. Alyson was commissioned by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties to consider whether, and if so how, a human rights-based approach could be applied to policing in Ireland. The subsequent report A Human Rights-Based Approach to Policing in Ireland was published in September 2018. Alyson is a Fellow of the RSA.

Casey Gwinn

Casey Gwinn is President of Alliance for HOPE International and has been recognised by The American Lawyer magazine as one of the top 45 public lawyers in America. Casey founded San Diego City Attorney’s Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Unit and led it from 1986 to 1996.

His vision of a comprehensive centre for services to victims of family violence become a reality in San Diego in 2002 with the opening of the nationally acclaimed San Diego Family Justice Centre, which sees professionals from 25 agencies together under one roof.

Today, Casey and his team support more than 130 open and developing Family Justice Centres in the US and around the world. He is also an expert in the handling of near-fatal strangulation assaults. He has served on many influential and high-profile committees, commissions and task forces.

Over the years his pioneering work has been credited with a 90% drop in the number of domestic violence related homicides in San Diego. His work has been profiled many times within the US on national television, in the national press and in online news outlets. Casey has written or co-authored dozens of articles and media commentaries as well as ten books on domestic violence and the Family Justice Centre movement.

One of Casey’s great personal passions is Camp HOPE America, the unique camping initiative he founded at the San Diego Family Justice Centre that is now expanding across the US. It is the first specialised camp to be focused exclusively on children exposed to domestic violence and child abuse.

Gael Strack

Gael Strack is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Alliance for HOPE International. Programmes of the Alliance include: National Family Justice Centre Alliance, Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention, Camp HOPE America, Justice Legal Network and VOICES Survivor Network.

Previously she served as the Founding Director of the San Diego Family Justice Centre from October 2002 to May 2007. Prior to that Gael held many senior positions within the San Diego City Attorney’s Office, during which time she worked alongside Casey Gwinn.

She too has served on many prestigious commissions and committees transforming the provision of services to survivors of domestic violence. Gael is an adjunct law professor at California Western School of Law, where she teaches “Domestic Violence and the Law.”

Gael has also co-authored a series of strangulation articles and five books with Casey Gwinn, JD, on the Family Justice Centre movement.

Prof. Stephen Murphy

Stephen Murphy is the Associate Director of the Alameda County Family Justice Centre. The Alameda County Family Justice Centre, located in Oakland, California, provides wraparound services to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking, elder abuse and child abuse.
Stephen is presently an Adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco, School of Law, where he teaches a course on Domestic Violence and the Practice of Law.

Chan Hellman

Chan’s current research is focused on the application of Hope theory to predict adaptive behaviours, and Hope as a psychological strength that buffers stress and adversity among those affected by family violence. In this context, he is also interested in the impact of prevention and intervention services on improving client hope.

Chan is a widely published author and contributor and has presented his various research findings at more than 100 conferences within the US and internationally.

Chan has taught at both the master’s and doctoral level, primarily in the areas of positive psychology, research methods and statistics. He holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, specialising in Research, Evaluation, Measurement and Statistics.

Currently based within Oklahoma University (OU) he is a Professor in the Anne & Henry Zarrow School of Social Work and Founding Director of the Hope Research Centre. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and Department of Paediatrics OU College of Medicine and the OU College of Public Health.

Monica McWilliams

Monica McWilliams is a professor in the Transitional Justice Institute at Ulster University in Northern Ireland. She currently serves on a three-person panel established by the Northern Ireland government to make recommendations on the disbandment of paramilitary organisations in Northern Ireland. During the Northern Ireland peace process, Ms. McWilliams co-founded the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition political party and was elected as a delegate to the Multi-Party Peace Negotiations (1996-1998). She was also elected to serve as a member of the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly (1998-2003).

Ms. McWilliams is a signatory of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and chaired the Implementation Committee on Human Rights on behalf of the British and Irish governments. She was Oversight Commissioner for prison reform in Northern Ireland (2011-2015) and Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (2005-2011). As Chief Commissioner, she delivered advice on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland to the UK government as mandated by the peace agreement.

Ms. McWilliams received, with other party leaders, the John F. Kennedy Leadership and Courage Award for her role in delivering the peace agreement in Northern Ireland.

Aisling Swaine

Aisling is Assistant Professor of Gender and Security at the Department of Gender Studies of the London School of Economics & Political Science.

Aisling’s research and teaching interests are in the areas of feminist legal theory, gender theory of armed conflict, and international security and peacebuilding. Her work is concerned with feminist examination of international law and global normative developments relating to armed conflict and peacebuilding. Specifically, her recent book, Conflict-Related Violence Against Women: Transforming Transition, examines relationships between violence against women within and outside of armed conflict and how transitional justice mechanisms engage with the characteristics of violence experienced by women.

She is a Visiting Fellow at the Transitional Justice Institute, Ulster University, and previously a Hauser Global Fellow at the Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice at the School of Law, New York University. She is an appointed ‘Expert’ to the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs Foreign Policy Network, is a member of the Faculty Advisory Council of the Global Women’s Institute, George Washington University and is a member of a number of UN advisory expert rosters.