Author: Chinoy, Mike
Brand: Lilliput Press
Number Of Pages: 416
Release Date: 01-03-2020
Details: Product Description Kevin Boyle (1943-2010) was one of the world's great human rights lawyers. In a career that lasted decades and spanned continents, he tackled issues ranging from freedom of the press to terrorism to minority rights. This compelling account of Kevin Boyle's life and work is a remarkable tale of how a taxi driver's son from Northern Ireland inspired the human rights movement around the world. Born in Newry in 1943, Boyle attended Queen's University Belfast in the early 1960s, beginning to teach law in 1966. He was a co-founder of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) and the People's Democracy, mediated during the 1981 hunger strikes and helped forge the basis for the agreement that ended the Troubles. His ideas, endorsed in a previously unrevealed conversation Margaret Thatcher had with Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald, provided much of the intellectual underpinning for the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement. He was the lead lawyer in the case that decriminalized homosexuality in Northern Ireland, which then led to its decriminalization in the Irish Republic and other countries. Through a series of landmark cases at the European Court of Human Rights, he left an enduring mark on international human rights law, campaigning against apartheid in South Africa and repression in Turkey. He also played a critical role as the senior advisor to Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, during 9/11 and was involved in shaping the international response. He also led the campaign to support Salman Rushdie after the writer was targeted by Iran's ayatollahs in 1989. Kevin Boyle was central in founding human rights law centres at universities from Ireland and Britain to Brazil and Japan. Though he was a towering figure, his personal story is not well known. Now, based on years of research, thousands of documents, and scores of interviews, former CNN correspondent Mike Chinoy has crafted the compelling life story of a remarkable Irishman. Review 'Mike Chinoy has done a major service by chronicling the extraordinary range of Kevin Boyle's work over nearly 50 years and in interviewing over 100 people so as to paint a fascinating picture of this quiet, soft spoken, but determined defender of human rights. This book should be read by everyone interested in human rights, not just in Northern Ireland, but in every country where rights need to be defended.' - Michael Farrell, Solicitor, Former Chair of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, and early leader of the Northern Ireland civil rights movement ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 'In this beautifully-written and fascinating book, Mike Chinoy has brought to life one of the great pioneering human rights lawyers of our times, a brilliant and dedicated fighter for justice, first in Northern Ireland and then on the international stage.' - Conor O'Clery, The Shoemaker and His Daughter ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 'The story of the late Kevin Boyle is well worth telling. I knew him first through the Peoples Democracy student movement and subsequently as my law lecturer in Queens University Belfast. He was a then reluctant (and now a largely overlooked) civil rights leader in Northern Ireland of the late 1960s and early 1970s. He later came into his own outside Northern Ireland as an influential human rights academic and advocate. Never one to be seek the often overcrowded limelight his name and legacy slipped into an obscurity from which Mike Chinoy has deservedly rescued him.' - Former President of Ireland Mary McAleese ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 'A terrific biography told by a world-class journalist.' - Dan Rather, former anchor of CBS News ; 'Mike Chinoy has written a compelling chronicle of the life of Kevin Boyle, from his role as the "legal
EAN: 9781843517726
Languages: English
Binding: Paperback
Item Condition: New