Eamon Gilmore is the EU Special representative for Human Rights, since March 2019. In2015 he was the EU Special Envoy for the Peace Process in Colombia.

He was Deputy Prime Minister (Tanaiste) and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade of Ireland (2011-2014). In that capacity, he was Chairperson-in-Office of the OSCE (2012), and was responsible for Ireland's presidency of the EU in 2013. He was a member of the Irish Parliament (Dail Eireann) from 1989 until 2016, and was the Leader of the Irish Labour Party (2007-2014). He is a former trade union and student leader.

Eamon Gilmore is also an Adjunct Professor at the School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, and was a Visiting Professor at the School of Public Policy, CEU, Budapest in 2017. He holds an Honorary Doctorate in Laws from his alma mater, the National University of Ireland, Galway and has been honoured by the government of France as Officier of the Legion d'Honneur.