Biography
Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, London, specialising in human rights and media law. She has acted in many landmark human rights cases in the UK, including acting for bereaved families and survivors of the 7/7 London Bombings and the Hillsborough disaster. Caoilfhionn’s international human rights practice includes regularly acting before the European Court of Human Rights and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and using the UN’s special procedures of the Human Rights Council to raise concerns for journalists, peaceful protestors and human rights defenders.
Caoilfhionn has particular expertise on issues concerning the safety of journalists and accountability for journalists’ deaths. She has given evidence on these matters to Parliamentary Committees in the UK, Australia and the European Union, and before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and she has recently been appointed to give expert evidence to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights concerning attacks on a female journalist. Caoilfhionn acts for many bereaved families whose loved ones have been killed in the course of, or because of, their work. This includes leading the international legal team for the family of Daphne Caruana Galizia who was assassinated in Malta in 2017, and acting for the family of Christopher Allen, a UK/ US dual national journalist killed in South Sudan. Caoilfhionn is also leading counsel for 152 BBC Persian journalists persecuted by Iran; for Amal Fathy, a blogger and women’s rights activist in Egypt; and she co-leads the international legal team for Maria Ressa, an award-winning journalist in the Philippines.
Caoilfhionn holds degrees from University College Dublin; the Honorable Society of the King’s Inns, Dublin; and Cambridge University. She was previously a civil liberties campaigner and academic, in Ireland and the UK, and she continues to write books and articles on a regular basis. Caoilfhionn is a member of the UK Advisory Board to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and she was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2017 for her human rights work.