Aoife Nolan
Aoife Nolan, LL.B (Dublin), PhD (EUI) is Professor of International Human Rights Law and Director of the University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Centre. Aoife is President of the Council of Europe’s European Committee of Social Rights, the leading European monitoring mechanism on economic and social rights, including the right to a health environment, having joined the Committee in 2017 and served as Vice-President in 2021-2. She is an Academic Expert at Doughty Street Chambers, where she co-leads the Children’s Rights Group and sits on the Steering Group of Doughty Street International. In 2025, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Background
A leading scholar in in the area of human rights, particularly in relation to economic and social rights and children’s rights, Professor Nolan’s work in recent years has focused on the constitutional and international human rights of future generations, child rights and intergenerational justice, as well the theory and practice of climate justice litigation and adjudication. This has included leading a ground-breaking project on Advancing Child Rights Strategic Litigation, which created a model of child rights-consistent strategic litigation practice, as well as a series of tools and guidance, that have been used by lawyers and others working in the climate justice area.
Professor Nolan has acted as an expert advisor to a wide range of international and national entities working on human rights, climate change, sustainable development and inter-generational justice issues, including UN treaty bodies and Special Procedures.
As President of the ECSR, she has been responsible for directing the Committee’s state reporting and its quasi-judicial collective complaints processes, including with regard to its growing focus on the impacts of climate change and environmental harm, and ensuring that its jurisprudence feeds into Council of Europe efforts in this area.
Research interests
- Climate justice litigation and adjudication
- Economic and social rights
- Children’s rights
- Future generations’ rights