A leading gay theologian with experience in Eastern Europe and the UN has been chosen to replace Monica McWilliams as head of the trouble-hit Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.
The appointment of Michael O'Flaherty as chief commissioner will be announced by the Northern Ireland Office next week.
Mr O'Flaherty takes up his post at the end of August.
He is currently Professor of Human Rights at the University of Nottingham and vice chair of the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
"Michael is an absolutely blue chip appointment – getting him will raise morale, but he inherits a vastly demoralised and diminished group of staff," an NIHRC insider said.
The new chief commissioner must introduce 25% budget cuts by 2014.
Recently the Commission's three most senior managers were made redundant and invited to apply for a single new job in order to reduce costs.
Mr O'Flaherty, from Galway, is probably best known as a champion of gay and lesbian rights and is a gay man himself.
He has acted as the UN Rapporteur on the Yogyakarta Principles on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, so called because they were developed in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta.
They seek to apply international human rights standards to gender issues.
More recently he has reported to the UN on the rights of the Roma people in Hungary and he has acted has an adviser in Bosnia and Sarajevo.
Qualified to practice as a solicitor, he has a string of qualifications, including Bachelor of Theology and Philosophy from Rome's Gregorian University and Master of International Relations from the University of Amsterdam.
Mr O'Flaherty's experience in gay and ethnic rights, as well as the topical subject of the Catholic Church's human rights duties, will be valuable in Northern Ireland.
He can also draw on his experience in international diplomacy to restore confidence in the NIHRC which has lost a number of recent legal cases.
