Amnesty International Ireland has named human-rights lawyer Stephen Bowen as its new executive director.

Bowen is a barrister specialising in international human-rights law and an academic with more than 30 years’ experience.

He has served as the Chief of Staff and Legal Adviser at the UN Special Co-ordinator for Sarajevo, and as Chief Human Rights Officer to the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH) during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.

NGO experience

Bowen is also a former Director of the British Institute of Human Rights, and most recently completed his role as Human Rights Course Director at Kingston University, London.

Amnesty said that, as well as legal and academic expertise, he was also bringing “a wealth of NGO experience”, having worked for Amnesty International UK, and Scope, one of Britain’s leading disability-equality charities.

“With the rise in far-right rhetoric, increasing violation of women’s rights and right to protest, and the unknown possibilities of artificial intelligence, it is now more important than ever to come together with one voice and speak truth to power, and to challenge those who seek to undermine and terrorise others,” said Bowen.

He takes up his new position with Amnesty on 14 August.