Kathleen Cavanaugh

Kathleen Cavanaugh "is from the United States. She obtained her Ph.D. in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics & Political Science and an LL.M in Comparative International and Human Rights Law at Queen's University of Belfast. She is currently (since 2000) a Lecturer in International Law at the National University of Ireland, Galway in the Irish Centre for Human Rights. She has previously taught in the Faculties of Law and Political Science at Queen’s University, Belfast and the Dept of Politics at UCD. She has participated in numerous international and professional conferences, has written extensively on the question of political violence in ethnically divided societies, the question of self-determination and autonomy regimes, and has undertaken considerable field work in regions experiencing ethnic conflict (Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Israel/Palestine, Iraq). For over a decade, she has been actively involved in both international, as well as local based human rights groups. She is currently on the Executive Committee of Amnesty International (Ireland) and the International Executive Committee (IEC) of Amnesty International. She has previously served on Amnesty International’s Board of Directors (USA) and additionally served as the US Country Specialist on the United Kingdom and Ireland. She has undertaken numerous missions on behalf of Amnesty International including to Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine (where she spent 3 months in the West Bank directing an Amnesty International delegation investigating violations of human rights and humanitarian law focusing on events in Jenin and Nablus) and more recently, to Iraq (where she focussed on the conduct of the occupying powers with relation to detention and security). Her academic interests and specialization include the study of nationalism, ethnic conflict, political violence and applicable human rights laws in entrenched/states of emergency and the laws of belligerent occupation (IHL)."