Monica McWilliams will reflect on her experience serving as a delegate to the multi-party peace talks leading to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, a landmark in the Northern Ireland peace process. She will discuss the contribution of women to the negotiations and to peace-building efforts worldwide, drawing on her experiences in Northern Ireland and around the world. She will be in conversation with Pozen Visiting Professor Louise Mallinder.
Monica McWilliams was a founding member of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition and a delegate to the multi-party peace talks leading to the Good Friday Agreement. She served as a Member of the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly from 1998-2003 and was Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission until 2010. She is Emeritus Professor at Ulster University's Transitional Justice Institute and a Commissioner on the Independent Reporting Commission for the disbandment of paramilitary organisations.
McWilliams played a pivotal role in the women’s movement in Northern Ireland. She did ground-breaking work on domestic violence and delivered training to police officers and the Public Prosecution Service. She publishes on domestic violence and the impact of conflict on women’s lives. Her memoir, Stand Up, Speak Out, was published by Blackstaff Press.
To learn more, read our recent interview with McWilliams about the topics she plans to discuss.
Louise Mallinder, the Spring 2024 Pozen Visiting Professor, is Professor of Law at Queen's University Belfast (QUB) and the Deputy Director in the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. Her research interests relate to the intersections of law and peace. She has a longstanding and internationally recognised expertise in amnesty laws, on which she has written extensively, and she created the Amnesties, Conflict and Peace Database. For many years, she worked on dealing with the past in Northern Ireland with colleagues from the Committee on the Administration of Justice and QUB School of Law.