PATRICIA O’BRIEN, BA, MA, Barrister-at-Law (1978) Former United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel Dr Patricia O’Brien has been Ambassador of Ireland to France and Monaco since 2017. She has now been appointed as Ireland’s Ambassador to Italy. As the UN Legal Counsel and Head of the Office of Legal Affairs from 2008 to 2013, Dr Patricia O’Brien led over 200 staff of more than 60 different nationalities as they endeavoured to provide a unified central legal service for the United Nations, the first woman to hold the position. At the time of her appointment, Patricia had been serving since 2003 as the Legal Adviser to the Department of Foreign Affairs of Ireland, a position that found her advising on legal matters related to Irish foreign policy. Before that she had served as a Senior Legal Adviser to Ireland’s Attorney General and as Legal Counsellor at the Irish Permanent Representation to the European Union in Brussels. Matters on which she advised the government of Ireland included proceedings before the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, and the European Court of Justice; moreover, she provided advice to expert legal meetings in the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and the European Union. WILLIAM CAMPBELL, BA, MA (1952) Nobel Prize Winner who discovered a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites Professor William Campbell won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine for developing the drug ivermectin that has almost eradicated river blindness. This work, carried out at Merck pharmaceuticals, was a direct extension of his education in parasitology in the Zoology department at Trinity. River blindness is an eye and skin disease caused by a parasite that ultimately leads to blindness, which is prevalent in Africa and parts of Central and South America. Professor Campbell’s work in the development of ivermectin helped lower the incidence of river blindness and lymphatic filariasis and provided the basis for the decision by Merck to distribute the cure for free to millions of people. In late 2017, Professor Campbell returned to the Zoology Department at Trinity and donated his old dissection kit – bought as a student when he started at Trinity in the late 1940s – to the Zoological Museum. It will forever serve as a reminder that Trinity’s students go on to do remarkable things. CAROLINE HAUGHEY, LLB (1998) Criminal barrister working to combat human trafficking and modern slavery Dr Caroline Haughey prosecuted the first cases of modern slavery in Britain in 2011. The case was a catalyst for the Modern Slavery Act of 2015, which Caroline helped draft, expanding the definition of exploitation. Since then, she has prosecuted a range of cases under the Act, from labour exploitation to child sex trafficking. Caroline sits on the UK’s Modern Slavery Task Force and consults with governments and law enforcement agencies worldwide on these issues. Caroline lectures both nationally and internationally to governments, law enforcement agencies and other participants in the criminal justice process on human trafficking and modern slavery, providing the benefit of her practical experience in successfully prosecuting organised criminal networks and advising on drafting, practical implementation and policing of trafficking and modern slavery. Caroline was appointed Her Majesty the Queen’s Counsel in 2018.
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