Giving to the community has it rewards: a sit-down with UN Special Commissioner Fionnuala Ní Aoláin

FATIMA MORI

I've always believed that superheroes are real. As I grow up, the definition of "superhero" keeps changing with me. From fantasy characters to Journalists, researchers and volunteers, I've realised there's a common thread on my examples — they're all normal people.

Fionnuala entered my classroom in building 14 at the Getafe Campus and, like the geek I am, I'm pretty sure my breath stopped.

It's easy to get your eyes drawn into someone whose job title include "UN Special Rapporteur" or "UN Commissioner." Almost as easy to get hooked by the stories they tell you from visiting Guantanamo, getting out of mic'ed hotel rooms or almost disguising herself around the streets of Syria to keep sources safe. 

These are just a few of the things Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin shared in one of the classrooms of Carlos III University, where she has been on a scholarship doing research work. 

An expert in International Law and Human Rights, she is also a Professor of Law at he University of Minnesota Law School and Queen's University Belfast. The biggest job she's had is being the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Counter Terrorism and Human Rights, presently a member of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria.

Needles to say, it's impressive. 

Despite the enormity of her work, Fionnuala is soft-spoken, simple and down to earth. She is able to explain her years working as an International Law expert as well as she's able to talk about the struggles of living between two cities, keeping a family while being everywhere and her new works.

In the middle of all her great — and insane — achievements, my conversation with Professor Ní Aoláin taught me a very valuable lesson.

Fionnula was never the type of student who dreamed of working in the highest positions at a United Nations Commission. On the contrary, she just wanted to give back to her community. 

She majored in Law at the University of Belfast during some of the thirty years that The Troubles conflict lasted. A time that for her, as for the rest of her classmates, was supposed to be instructive ended up shaping her youth because of the heavy and the continuous violence that students (and the rest of civilians) endured over those years. 

It's only natural that in this period, Fionnuala grew a pretty strong calling: "My legal studies were shaped by being in a place that was experiencing extreme violence, sectarianism and profound human rights violations, so I think I knew once I was in Law School that these were the set of issues I was interested in," she shares. 

 Throughout her career, she's been a Professor, a Rapporteur, and an Academic… but she has always remained a Lawyer: Fionnuala has written many books on International, Human Rights and National Security Law, as well as Transitional Justice and Feminist Legal Theory. Her theoretical and policy focus has always come down the relationship between International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law, while always keeping Gender Studies as a priority. 

Fionnuala, an Irish professor, has worked in crazy places such as the Guantanamo prison, in mic'ed rooms and recently, she's headed to visit Syria in her role as Commissioner on the Commission of Inquiry. 

Prof. Ní Aoláin shared in a conference in my class that when trying to get some interviews on the ground over in the Middle East, she and her team have the enormous challenge of being unable to offer any special security for the people she interviews — and especially to women — who took a chance and decided to collaborate with them. 

Fionnuala shared that in the months she has been in Madrid, she's been conducting some research work on surveillance and spyware. Back in 2022, the University of Toronto published an article that, supported by Amnesty International, it concluded that "there had been an extensive surveillance operation using the PEGASUS and CANDIRU programs, focusing on different Catalan and Basque personalities." 

However, she recognises that the use of these spyware technologies "was clear that it was being used unnecessary, disproportionately and in discriminatory ways against opponents of the State," not only in Spain but in other European countries such as Poland and Greece. 

"It tells us a lot of the limits of regulations", she reflects. 

Having a sit-down with Fionnuala at the age twenty is stunning, to say the least. She laughs when I tell her this and with the same touch of grace a good teacher has, she says there's no need to be nervous. Along the interview I get lost in her words, marbling at the fact that my public University had this scholar for a couple of months and that, in itself, is a privilege.

Ultimately, I end up telling her that what I want students to take from this interview is a deeper look on who are some of the people behind the big table — I'm a Journalism student and her work shocks me enough, I keep wondering what Law students would have to say about her work. 

"Everybody has an interest in something," she explains. Fionnuala's story is remarkable — she started by wanting to do work on her community, always shaped by the violence and conflict, and it's that passion for it which has landed her where she is now. "My advice is always find something to do in it." 

"My husband keeps asking me when we'll retire", we laugh. It's bittersweet to think about these types of superheroes leaving the stage. They've earned it, as Fionnuala has dedicated basically her entire life to the service of the Law. I guess it's up to us to pick up on her legacy, but each of us following our own path and, in a couple of years, we might see a classmate leading the UN Special Commission.