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Attorneys representing South Africa, together with Irish lawyer Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, petitioned the ICJ to order an emergency suspension of Israel’s Gaza marketing campaign
Irish lawyer Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh KC, who practices as a barrister at Matrix Chambers in London, was certainly one of two exterior counsel supporting the South African authorized staff in its genocide case in opposition to Israel on the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ) on Thursday.
South Africa accuses Israel of breaching the UN genocide conference in its conduct of the battle in opposition to Hamas in Gaza since October seventh.
Showing as certainly one of eight consultants on behalf of the federal government of South Africa, Ms Ní Ghrálaigh, warned of the influence of “irreparable prejudice” – an impact whose look is sufficient motive to aim to restrict or eradicate its results – on the Gazan inhabitants.
“Unilateral undertakings now is not going to take away the probability of irreparable prejudice”, she stated. “The fact is that nowhere and no person is protected in Gaza.”
The destruction of Gaza, added Ms Ní Ghrálaigh, could be “the primary genocide in historical past the place victims are live-streaming their very own destruction”.
She ended her proof by displaying a picture of a white board in a Gaza hospital trauma room the place the medical employees – now believed lifeless – had left the straightforward message in writing: “We did what we may. Bear in mind us!”
[ What is the International Court of Justice in The Hague and what is South Africa’s claim against Israel? ]
“The very status of worldwide regulation and worldwide justice”, Ms Ní Ghrálaigh concluded, “hangs within the stability and relies on how this court docket responds.”
Ms Ní Ghrálaigh has been with Matrix since endeavor her pupillage there in 2005. She practices regulation throughout human rights, public worldwide regulation, prison regulation and public regulation. She acts for people, states, and NGOs, showing in courts in addition to tribunals.
Earlier than pursuing her authorized research, she labored on the Bloody Sunday Inquiry for the authorized staff representing the wounded and the households of these killed, and for a civil motion regulation specialist solicitors in London.
Ms Ní Ghrálaigh additionally labored on the 2015 genocide case taken by Croatia in opposition to Serbia on the ICJ, and in addition spent three months in Trinidad and Tobago, working with prisoners on dying row.
Earlier instances she has labored on embrace an enchantment introduced by the Hooded Males to safe an investigation into UK ministerial authorisation of their torture within the early Seventies.
She was additionally counsel for Conradh na Gaeilge, intervening within the case of the Keane household of their profitable enchantment in opposition to a ruling prohibiting them from together with the phrases “In ár gcroíthe go deo” in Irish solely on their mom’s gravestone.
Ms Ní Ghrálaigh represented Rhian Graham, who was the one lady defendant of the Colston 4, who have been the protesters cleared in 2022 in Bristol Crown Court docket of prison harm for toppling a statue of the slave dealer Edward Colston.
The statue was introduced down and thrown into Bristol harbour throughout a Black Lives Matter protest in June 2020.
Talking to Irish Authorized Information in 2022, Ms Ní Ghrálaigh stated she was introduced up by her mom, collectively together with her older sister. The household in the end settled in London, with prolonged journeys again to Eire.
When she was 13 or 14, she would go to the Previous Bailey throughout college holidays to take a seat within the public gallery.
“I discovered it fascinating,” she stated. “However even then, I by no means envisaged myself in that position till a lot later. I went on to review languages – French and Latin – at college.”
[ International Court of Justice begins hearing case alleging genocide by Israel in Gaza ]
She stated the story of Majella O’Hare, a 12-year-old lady from Co Armagh who was shot within the again and killed by a British soldier in 1976, had a profound influence on her.
“I used to be 12 years outdated myself when I discovered a pamphlet about Majella O’Hare in certainly one of my mom’s bookcases,” she stated. “I noticed the image of the younger lady on the entrance, and noticed her age, and I learn it from cowl to cowl.
“I examine how she died within the arms of her father after he heard the shot and went operating to her. I believe it was her age, the truth that no person had been held accountable, and the circumstances of the killing – that she had been shot as she walked alongside a rustic street with a gaggle of different kids.”
Ms Ní Ghrálaigh went to her mom in tears, who in flip informed her to “do one thing” about it. “I typically take into consideration my mom’s response,” she stated. “Her phrases struck a really profound chord. And I’ve held on to that pamphlet over all these years. It’s now framed above my work desk as a reminder of what introduced me right here.”
She additionally undertook a authorized fact-finding mission to Gaza in 2009. “The extent of devastation and trauma I witnessed in Gaza is tough to place into phrases,” she stated. “It was one of many experiences of my skilled life that has marked me essentially the most.”
Ms Ní Ghrálaigh graduated from Queens’ Faculty, Cambridge, with firstclass honours in trendy and medieval languages, and obtained a distinction on the Graduate Diploma in Legislation.
She holds an LLM in Worldwide Authorized Research from New York College, the place she specialised in worldwide environmental regulation and local weather refugees.
She additionally holds diplomas from the London Faculty of Economics in Legislation, Conflict and Human Rights, in addition to Worldwide Human Rights Legislation and Observe.
She was appointed a visiting fellow to Harvard Legislation Faculty in 2016. Her analysis centered on the Arms Commerce Treaty and on Israeli navy courts in occupied Palestine.
She has been known as to the bars of the Republic, Northern Eire, in addition to to the bar of England and Wales.
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