Dr. Aoife Watters

Aoife is a Lecturer in Law and lectures across Schools on socio-legal issues. She sits on a number of committees across DkIT.
Aoife previously held roles in University College Dublin, the Office of the Inspector of Prisons, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and Oberstown Children Detention Campus. She also served as an Expert to the Inspector of Prisons and more recently, was appointed as an Expert to the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Aoife also sits on the Rights Review Committee for the Talbot Group. 

Aoife holds an LLB Law with Government from the University of Ulster, an LLM in Human Rights and Criminal Justice from Queens University Belfast and a Certificate in Research Supervision from Dundalk Institute of Technology. Aoife was awarded her PhD in 2018 from University College Dublin, where she was the holder of the Fitzpatrick Family Foundation Scholarship. 
Aoife was awarded a National Teaching Hero Award in 2021 from the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning and the Union of Students, Ireland.

Aoife has been involved in the oversight of prisons and places of detention, and undertaking research in prisons for over ten years. She has extensive experience of undertaking inspections of all prisons in Ireland in her roles with the Office of the Inspector of Prisons. Aoife's doctoral research was undertaken using qualitative methods and examined the operation of the disciplinary system in Irish prisons from legal and criminological perspectives. Her teaching interests lie primarily in the areas of the rights of marginalized and vulnerable groups in society, oversight and accountability in criminal justice, health and social care settings and professional regulation.  Combining her significant experience of inspecting prisons and places of detention with the areas that she teaches in, Aoife's interests have expanded to explore how human rights obligations are implemented in places where persons may be subject to the use of restraints and/ or places where people might be deprived of their liberty (other than prisons), such as residential settings for persons with disabilities and mental health settings.  The synergies across Aoife's experience and areas of interest are reflected in her role as a Committee Member of the All-Ireland Restraint Reduction Network (AAIRN), a recently established body that seeks to reform and influence policy and law relating to the use of restraints through the life-cycle, from crèches to nursing homes.