Join us for light refreshments from 3.15pm, followed by an address by Paul O'Brien, Executive Director, Amnesty International USA, and a moderated discussion.
Register here (free): https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/paul-obriens-talk-tickets-1421567389329?aff=oddtdtcreator
Title: Aid Development & Human Rights
The aid system is in existential crisis. With the collapse of USAID and the failure of the US development and political system to properly name and respond to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and on its own border, amongst so many other crises, we are now witnessing the destruction of the institutions and core consensus that allowed the humanitarian and development system to save lives, mitigate economic and rights inequalities and meet core needs for decades.
What happens now and in the years to come? And how can a human rights approach provide any political and policy support for resurgent support for humanitarianism, when in the US and around the world, it too is under threat.
Paul O’Brien, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, based in Washington DC will reflect on these questions and others. His bio is below.
Since April 2021, Paul O’Brien has been the Executive Director at Amnesty International USA, a human rights organization of 240,000 members and 125 staff. Over his career he has done human rights research and advocacy in more than 50 countries, including most recently Mexico, Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. He lived for 10 years in Africa working for local and international organizations, and for 5 years in Afghanistan.
Before Amnesty, Paul co-led Oxfam’s worldwide influencing network’s advocacy efforts during the Covid pandemic and led Oxfam America’s advocacy with the US government and corporations. He has been an advisor to the President of Afghanistan, the Africa Policy Advisor for CARE, and an organizer in Nairobi’s informal urban settlements. He was the President of the Echoing Green Foundation and a litigator in New York for Cravath, Swaine and Moore. He has a JD from Harvard Law School.
Before joining Amnesty, he published “Power Switch” How We Can Reverse Extreme Inequality.”