The director of the Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway, Prof William Schabas, has been appointed a member of Sierra Leone's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Commenting on his appointment by the President of Sierra Leone, Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, Prof Schabas said: "Truth commissions are increasingly recognised as useful and effective mechanisms to promote peace and reconciliation in societies emerging from conflict and to combat impunity. They can ensure accountability where the more traditional approach of criminal prosecution is not possible.
"They are particularly effective in providing a voice for victims and in establishing what really took place."
Prof Schabas is one of three non-nationals nominated to the seven-member commission by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson.
A Canadian national, he took up the chair in human rights law at NUI Galway in January 2000.
Prof Schabas is a recognised specialist in international human rights law, with a particular expertise in the area of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
A prolific author, he has published 12 books on human rights subjects and has worked as a human rights monitor and investigator in Rwanda, Cambodia, Kosovo, Chechnya, the Sudan and El Salvador.
Modelled on similar commissions in South Africa and Guatemala, the commission is charged with creating an impartial historical record of the brutal civil war in Sierra Leone during the 1990s.
It will also address the needs of victims and promote national reconciliation. It has 15 months to complete its work, starting on June 1st.
The Sierra Leone Truth Commission is made up of seven commissioners, four of them nationals of Sierra Leone, and the three non-nationals nominated by Mrs Robinson.
The other non-nationals appointed are Ms Yasmin Louise Sooka, a former member of the South African Truth Commission, and Satang Ajaaraton Jow, former Gambian Minister of Education.