Local power,
Global justice

Caoimhe was appointed Trócaire CEO in October 2018, twenty-one years after first joining the organisation. Her first role was as Campaigns Officer, later becoming Policy and Advocacy Coordinator. She moved to Mozambique in 2007 to take up the role of Assistant Regional Manager for Southern Africa with Trócaire. In 2011 she was appointed Director of Trócaire’s International Division. A fluent Irish speaker, Caoimhe is from Dublin and continues to live there with her husband, Carl, and two sons, Fionán and Ferdia. Caoimhe has a Masters in Development Studies from University College Dublin.

Bishop Crean of Cloyne Diocese heads up Trócaire’s Executive Board, which oversees the financial and operational management of the organisation. He was appointed Chair of Trócaire in June 2013.

The Romero Award each year honours a Trócaire partner who has displayed courage and commitment to advancing the cause of injustice in the communities where we work. Launched in 2018, the Romero Award is presented to highlight the bravery of our partners.
The award is named in honour of Saint Oscar Romero, who was a Trócaire partner prior to his assassination in March 1980. Trócaire supported Saint Romero’s work with the poor and marginalised in El Salvador. Today, his spirit lives on in the work of our partners around the world.

Named by New African Magazine one of the 100 Most Influential Africans of 2018, Heba Aly runs the world’s leading source of original, field-based journalism about humanitarian crises. The New Humanitarian (formerly IRIN News) is an independent, non-profit newsroom reporting from the heart of conflicts and disasters. It amplifies the voices of those affected to inform more effective and accountable responses by the international community.

A multimedia journalist by training, Heba spent one decade reporting from conflict zones in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia before joining the transition team that led IRIN’s spin-off from the United Nations.

Her work for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Christian Science Monitor, Bloomberg News and IRIN, among others, has taken her to places like Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Chad, Kenya and Libya; and she received a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting for work in northern Sudan.

Her TEDx Talk – “Stop Eating Junk News” – drives home the importance of responsible journalism from crisis zones. Heba is a regular commentator on media coverage of crises, as well as humanitarian aid policy, in her published work, in governmental briefings and at conferences around the world. In 2018, the World Economic Forum named Heba one of 100 Young Global Leaders under 40.

Mary Robinson is Adjunct Professor for Climate Justice in Trinity College Dublin and Chair of The Elders.  She served as President of Ireland from 1990-1997 and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997-2002. She is a member of the Club of Madrid and the recipient of numerous honours and awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the President of the United States Barack Obama. Between 2013 and 2016 Mary served as the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy in three roles; first for the Great Lakes region of Africa, then on Climate Change leading up to the Paris Agreement and in 2016 as his Special Envoy on El Niño and Climate. Her Foundation, the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, established in 2010, came to a planned end in April 2019.

A former President of the International Commission of Jurists and former chair of the Council of Women World Leaders she was President and founder of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative from 2002-2010 and served as Honorary President of Oxfam International from 2002-2012. She was Chancellor of the University of Dublin from 1998 to 2019.

Mary Robinson serves as Patron of the International Science Council and Patron of the Board of the Institute of Human Rights and Business, is an Ambassador for The B Team, in addition to being a board member of several organisations including the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and the Aurora Foundation. Recently she became joint Honorary President of the Africa Europe Foundation. Mary’s memoir, ‘Everybody Matters’ was published in September 2012 and her book, ‘Climate Justice – Hope, Resilience and the Fight for a Sustainable Future’ was published in September 2018. She is also co-host of a podcast on the climate crisis, called ‘Mothers of Invention’.

Tasneem Essop is currently the Executive Director of Climate Action Network International (CAN-I).

She completed serving her second term as Commissioner in the National Planning Commission in South Africa, appointed by the President, where she led the work on Climate Justice and the Just Transition.

She previously headed the climate team in WWF International and served as the Head of Delegation for the organisation at the UNFCCC right through to the COP in Paris.

Dr Sinead Walsh is the Climate Director at Irish Aid. Prior to this she served as the EU Ambassador to South Sudan.

She has worked for Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs since 2009. She previously served as the Ambassador of Ireland to Sierra Leone and Liberia and the Head of Irish Aid in the two countries.

Before joining the government, Sinead spent ten years in the NGO sector. She has an MSc in Development Studies from UCD and a PhD in Social Policy from the LSE. She is the co-author of Getting to Zero: A Doctor and A Diplomat on the Ebola Frontline.

Julius Ng’oma is the National Coordinator for Civil Society Network on Climate Justice (CISONECC) in Malawi.

Mr. Ng’oma leads CISONECC at national level in different committees such as Joint National Technical Committee on Climate Justice and Disaster Risk Management in Malawi (NTCCC); and Expert Working Group on Adaptation in Malawi. He served as Alternate Active Observer to Green Climate Fund representing CSOs in the Global South until December 2019; Member of the Continental Governing Council of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA); Convenor for the Southern Africa Adaptation and Agriculture Platform; and steering committee member for African Coalition for Sustainable Energy and Access (ACSEA).

Mr. Ng’oma is currently pursuing a PhD in Forestry and Environmental Management at Mzuzu University, Malawi.

Professor Fionnuala D. Ní Aoláin is a University Regents Professor; holder of the Robina Chair in Law, Public Policy, and Society; and faculty director of the Human Rights Center at the Law School.

She is concurrently a professor of law at the Queen’s University of Belfast, School of Law. She is serving as UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism since 2017.

Claudia Paz y Paz is the Director of the Mexico and Central America Program Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL).

Prior to joining CEJIL’s team, Claudia was the first woman to hold office as Guatemala’s Attorney General where she believed in the rule of law as a force that could strengthen society through the pillars of peace, justice and equality.

As the first Guatemala law enforcement office to pursue high-ranking combatants of the civil war for war crimes, she succeeded in the conviction of high-ranking members of the military and of the former President Efrain Rios Montt for crimes against humanity. Additionally, Claudia formed part of the Inter-
American Commission on Human Rights’ Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) tasked with investigating the disappearance of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa, Mexico.

In 2013 she was nominated to the Nobel Peace Prize.

Dr Musa Kika is a Zimbabwean human rights and constitutional lawyer, and until recently was the Executive Director of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, Zimbabwe’s biggest coalition of human rights groups.

Musa also served as Secretary of the National Transitional Justice Working Group. Musa is also affiliated with the University of Cape Town’s Democratic Governance and Rights Unit as a Senior Researcher. Previously, Musa taught law at the University of Zimbabwe’s Faculty of Law and served as a law clerk to the Chief Justice and Judges of Appeal at the Supreme Court of Namibia, for a judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals in South Africa, and for a judge of the High Court in Botswana. He has worked with law-based NGOs such as Justice for Children and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, and published widely on human rights, democracy and governance. Musa is a Mandela Rhodes Scholar, a Harvard Law School Kaufman Public Service Fellow, and an alumni of the US State Department’s International Visitors Leadership Program for the Rule of Law cohort.

Musa holds a PhD in Constitutional and Administrative Law from the University of Cape Town; a Master of Laws (LLM) from Harvard Law School; and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) summa cum laude from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He also holds professional certificates from the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Human Rights and the University of Basel.

Mr. James Ngun Hre National Director, Karuna Mission Social Solidarity, Myanmar Mr. James Ngun Hre is the national director of Karuna Mission Social Solidarity (KMSS) starting from the beginning of this year. He was working as Head of Programs at KMSS Hakha Office from 2012 to 2020.

He has a Master’s Degree in Social Services and Development from the Asian Social Institute, Manila, Philippines.

Being a native from one of the least developed areas, James Hre is committed to the work of social development and humanitarian action in Myanmar, his country.

Michael Gaffey has been the Director General, Development Cooperation and Africa Division (Irish Aid), DCAD since August 2022.

Before his appointment to DCAD, he was the Permanent Representative of Ireland to the United Nations in Geneva, following terms as Director General for Development, Middle East Director, Director for the Western Balkans and South East Europe.

His previous postings with the Department of Foreign Affairs were in Tokyo, London, Cairo, Amman, Baghdad, Belfast and Chicago.