Professor Michael O'Flaherty is the current Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe. He has also served as the Director of the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) and from 2004 to 2012 as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC). On 19 September 2011 he took up appointment as the third Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC), the statutory national human rights institution for Northern Ireland. He resigned as chief commissioner in October 2013.