Emily Logan is the first Chief Commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission appointed by President Michael D Higgins on 31 October 2014, following an open competition.
In June 2015, Ms Logan headed the IHREC delegation attending the 55th session of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Geneva, where she presented the Commission’s assessment on the Irish State’s compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
In the decade prior to her appointment, Ms Logan served as Ireland’s first Ombudsman for Children, accounting directly to the Oireachtas. Key areas of investigation by the Ombudsman for Children’s Office during her tenure included a multi-agency review of child death and own-volition systemic investigation into state compliance with child protection policy.
In accordance with its remit as a national human rights institution for children, Ms Logan progressed the rights of children without parental care, in particular separated children, children in care and children deprived of their liberty. Over her period in the Ombudsman for Children’s Office, Ms Logan advocated an amendment to the Irish Constitution to further enhance the rights of children.
In 2008, she was appointed by her peers to the position of President of the European Network of Ombudsmen for Children, a network of 40 Ombudsman for Children Offices across Council of Europe member states and remained on the executive until September 2011.
In 2013 she was appointed in a personal capacity by the Minister for Justice to undertake a statutory inquiry into the taking into care of two children from two Roma families by An Garda Síochána.
She has twenty five years management experience in Ireland and the UK. For six years preceding her appointment as Ombudsman for Children, she held two senior positions in public administration: Director of Nursing at Crumlin Children’s Hospital and Director of Nursing at Tallaght Hospital, following her time as Directorate Manager in Great Ormond Street Hospital London.
In 2015, Ms Logan accepted an honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws (LLD) from National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Ms Logan graduated from Queens University with an LLM in Human Rights Law, University College Dublin with an MBA and Diploma in Mediation, and from City University London with an MSc in Psychology.
