Academic Expert Professor Aoife Nolan elected Vice-President of the European Committee of Social Rights for the Council of Europe

Doughty Street Chambers is proud to announce that our Academic Expert Professor Aoife Nolan has been elected Vice-President of the European Committee of Social Rights for the Council of Europe, the leading European monitoring mechanism on economic and social rights.

Aoife is an internationally recognised expert in human rights law, with a particular focus on economic and social rights and children's rights. She is Professor of International Human Rights Law at the School of the Law, University of Nottingham, where she is also Co-Director of the Human Rights Law Centre. In addition to her academic work, Professor Nolan has acted as an expert advisor to a wide range of international and national organisations and bodies working on human rights issues, including numerous UN Special Procedures, UN treaty bodies, the Council of Europe, the World Bank, multiple NHRIs and NGOs. She has also supported a number of different governments in their efforts to advance protection of human rights through law and policy reform. She has been a member of the European Committee of Social Rights since 2017.

Aoife co-leads Doughty Street Chambers' Children's Rights Group, which brings together barristers across all practice teams working on this crucial human rights issue.

Read Aoife’s full profile here.

Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC, of Doughty Street Chambers , says:

“We are delighted that our colleague Professor Aoife Nolan has been appointed Vice-President of the European Committee of Social Rights, the leading European monitoring mechanism on economic and social rights. In her role as an Academic Expert at Doughty Street Chambers, she brings intellectual rigour and deep expertise to our work in these fields, and we are very lucky to have seen her superb leadership as co-head of our Children’s Rights Group. Aoife’s appointment to a leadership role in the Committee comes at a vitally important time for the protection of social rights in Europe. We welcome this appointment and will watch with interest.”

Jamie Burton, of Doughty Street Chambers, says:

“Aoife Nolan's appointment comes as no surprise to those who've been aware of her decades-long ground-breaking human rights work. Particularly in the field of social rights, Aoife has been at the forefront of academic and other legal work and done more than anyone to see these rights realised and respected. Her elevation to Vice President of the European Committee of Human Rights is both hugely deserved and very good news for suffering the injustice of social rights violations.”

Chambers would like to thank Aoife for her continued work and commitment to human rights.