Keynote Speaker Professor Aoife Nolan

Aoife Nolan is Professor of International Human Rights Law and Co-Director of the Human Rights Law Centre at the University of Nottingham. In early 2017, she was elected to the Council of Europe’s European Committee of Social Rights, Europe’s leading economic and social rights monitoring body. In 2018, she served on the Scottish First Minister’s Advisory Group on Human Rights Leadership and is currently a member of the Scottish Government’s UNCRC Working Group to input on the best model of incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scottish law. She has published extensively in the areas of children’s rights, including in the areas of international human rights law and constitutional law. Aoife has acted as an expert advisor to a wide range of international and national organisations and bodies working on child rights issues, including numerous UN Special Procedures, UN treaty-monitoring bodies, the Council of Europe, multiple NHRIs and NGOs. Her publications include: the prize-winning Children’s Socio-economic Rights, Democracy & the Courts (Hart, 2011), Economic and Social Rights after the Global Financial Crisis (CUP, 2014) and ‘Protecting the Child from Poverty: The Role of Rights in the Council of Europe’ (Council of Europe, 2019). She has held visiting positions at academic institutions in Europe, Africa, the US and Australia. She is an Academic Expert member at Doughty Street Chambers where she co-leads the Children’s Rights Group.
Keynote Speaker Professor Fiona Kearney

Kearney has curated numerous exhibitions in Ireland and internationally, with particular emphasis on how contemporary art practice relates to research directions within academic contexts. Throughout her academic and professional career, Kearney has received several distinguished awards including the designation of college scholar by UCC, the NUI Prix d’Honneur from the French Government, a UCC President’s Award for Research on Innovative Forms of Teaching and the Jerome Hynes Fellowship on the Clore Leadership Programme. From 2009-2014, she served as a member of the Arts Council of Ireland and she is currently a board member of the Irish Architecture Foundation, VISUAL Carlow, and Cork Midsummer Festival.
Keynote Speaker Dr Tim Gill

Tim Gill is a global advocate for children’s outdoor play and mobility, and author of No Fear: Growing up in a risk-averse society (2007) and Urban Playground: How child-friendly planning and design can save cities (due 2021). Tim is a Design Council Built Environment Expert, and a Visiting Research Fellow at Reading University’s School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences. A Churchill Fellow with degrees from Oxford and London Universities and an honorary doctorate from Edge Hill University, Tim is a former director of the Children’s Play Council (now Play England). His website is http://www.rethinkingchildhood.com.