Search
Who We Are
What We’ve Done
How We Work
Information Line
Your Rights
FAQs
Case Studies
- Campaigns
- Show Racism the Red Card
- EASY. Increasing dialogue, awareness, and victim-centred support for victims of forced marriages
- Be an Ally Against Racism!
- Anti-Racism
- Gender-Based Violence
- Trafficking of Women and Girls
- Refugee Crisis
- Integration
- Immigration Reform
- Statelessness
- Child Migration Matters
Dr Ciara Smyth
Dr. Ciara Smyth is an established expert in the field of refugee and immigration law at the international, regional and domestic levels, with a particular focus on the rights of the child. She has published in many of the leading international journals, including the European Law Journal, the Human Rights Law Review, the International Journal of Refugee Law, the European Journal of Migration and Law and the Journal of Refugee Studies. She has written extensively on the Common European Asylum System and her book, 'European Asylum Law and the Rights of the Child' (Routledge, 2014), explores the extent to which the European regional system of refugee protection is consistent with the rights of the child.
Before joining the University of Galway, Ciara worked for a number of non-governmental and intergovernmental organisations in Ireland and abroad, including the Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Ciara continues to be involved in supporting civil society organisations working in the asylum and immigration space at the local and national level. For example, she is a member of the Legal Advisory Council to the Independent Law Centre at the Irish Refugee Council (IRC) and was formerly chair of the board of directors of the IRC; she recently joined the board of directors of the Immigrant Council of Ireland; and she has worked with Galway City Partnership's Bridge Project, which provides reception and integration supports to asylum seekers and immigrants in Galway City and County. Ciara has also worked with the State on asylum reform and was the only academic member of the government-appointed McMahon Working Group on Direct Provision. She is the leading academic voice in media discussions on asylum and immigration in Ireland, bringing facts and balance to an otherwise polarised debate.
Ciara holds a PhD from Leiden University, the Netherlands, for which she was awarded a Max Van Der Stoel Human Rights award in 2013; an LL.M in Human Rights (with distinction) from Queen's University Belfast; and an LL.B and B.A. from the University of Galway.
Ciara is Programme Director of the LL.M in International Migration and Refugee Law and Policy at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, which began in September 2019. She was co-founder of the University of Galway Inclusive Centenaries Scholarship - the forerunner to the current University of Sanctuary Scholarship, and has chaired the University of Sanctuary Scholarship panel since its inception. Ciara was recipient of a President's Award for Teaching Excellence in 2018 and a President's Award for Research Excellence (Research Supervision) in 2024.