The Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) today published its report to the United Nations (UN) on Ireland’s overall human rights record, calling for immediate action to address serious gaps in human rights protections.
Ireland will be examined for the first time on its record on all of its human rights obligations under a new UN process called the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), in October 2011. In advance of that examination, the IHRC has issued its own ‘report card’ on Ireland’s human rights record. The IHRC makes over 35 recommendations aimed at addressing Ireland’s human rights deficit. It makes concrete recommendations on the rights of Travellers, migrants and asylum seekers, women, children, people with disabilities, people in poverty and prisoners. The report also deals with broad legislative and policy areas including health, education, immigration, criminal justice, and social welfare.
Dr Maurice Manning, President of the IHRC said
“there have been serious gaps in the State’s efforts to date to meet its human rights obligations. Key reforms at constitutional, legislative, policy and service level are required to strengthen human rights in Ireland. It is not acceptable that important human rights treaties that would increase protections for vulnerable groups such as people with disabilities, migrant workers and people held in detention remain to be ratified. Drastic cuts in resources over the last 3 years to human rights and equality bodies have hampered their efforts to safeguard human rights and to hold the State to account. The uptake by the State of the IHRC’s recommendations would reduce the human rights deficit and strengthen protection for everyone, especially the most vulnerable in Irish society.”
Key Recommendations
- Referenda to amend the Constitution to strengthen equality, women and children’s rights, and widen grounds on which discrimination can be prohibited;
- Adequately fund the IHRC and make it directly accountable to the Oireachtas;
- Ensure there are independent bodies to monitor racism and promote anti-poverty policy;
- Recognise Travellers as an ethnic minority, and prioritise targeted health, education and accommodation measures that include Traveller representatives in their development and implementation;
- Ensure asylum applications are dealt with fairly and transparently and within 1 year, and provide greater legal protection to vulnerable migrant workers
- Introduce an administrative scheme for the families of Irish citizen children in response to a recent European Court of Justice judgement;
- Introduce the principle of non-retrogression into all economic policies so that State bodies must undertake an assessment of the impact of welfare and service decisions on people in vulnerable circumstances;
- Introduce a comprehensive & well resourced scheme of criminal & civil legal aid on a statutory footing;
- End ‘slopping out’ in prisons, urgently deal with overcrowding, and develop a penal policy with more focus on non-custodial sanctions;
- Increase availability of choice of schools to reflect a diverse Ireland;
- Prioritise human rights training for the Civil and Public Service.
Speaking about the impact of the economic crisis on vulnerable people, Dr Manning said
“Human rights and equality are not optional extras for the good times. They become even more important in times of crisis when more people are struggling to make ends meet. The policies of the State should not be a contributing factor to pushing more people into poverty. We are concerned that the cumulative effect of cuts to welfare and services targeted at vulnerable people are having that result and contradict the State’s policy goal of eradicating consistent poverty by 2016. The habitual residence condition needs to be reformed and more stringent proofing of the impact of economic and budgetary policies on vulnerable groups needs to be put in place.”
The IHRC is concerned about the inadequacy of human rights safeguards in the criminal justice system. Mr Éamonn Mac Aodha, Chief Executive of the IHRC said
“the use of criminal trials without a jury should be limited to exceptional circumstances. All people arrested for a criminal offence should have a legal representative present during questioning by An Garda Síochána. To offset the limits of the current civil legal aid system, a comprehensive and well-resourced scheme of criminal and civil legal aid needs to be in place, on a statutory footing and available as of right.”
In relation to the penal and prison systems, Mr Mac Aodha continued:
“we are seriously concerned about conditions in Irish prisons. The ongoing practice of “slopping out” is degrading and dehumanising and must be stopped immediately. Dangerous levels of overcrowding in prisons, which has been exacerbated by imprisonment for minor offences, must be tackled without delay. In the longer term, a comprehensive penal policy should be developed, with a focus on the development of alternative non-custodial sanctions.”
In relation to Traveller rights, Dr Manning said:
“Travellers should be recognised as an ethnic minority and their culture valued, promoted and protected. Travellers also continue to achieve poor educational outcomes and have very poor health overall when compared to the general population. Investment in targeted measures is essential to tackle these inequalities. Travellers must also be at the centre of the development of policies related to them, and targeted measures must be put in place to increase Traveller representation in public life.”
The IHRC is also concerned about the rights of asylum seekers at points of entry to the country and while having their application for refugee status processed. Dr Manning said:
“there needs to be greater transparency and fairness in how people are treated at our borders. Once in the system, people seeking asylum are also spending too long waiting for their applications to be processed. This needs to be tackled urgently. Living for years in hostels or old hotels, not being allowed to work, having almost no personal autonomy and being socially isolated have a hugely negative impact on people seeking asylum.”
In relation to people with disabilities, Dr Manning stated
“In addition to urgently ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, people with intellectual disabilities should be moved from psychiatric institutions to appropriate community settings and specific timeframes should be put in place to ensure this occurs. The Mental Health Act 2001 should be amended to satisfy the requirements of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and mental capacity legislation should be introduced immediately and thus remove the last barrier to the ratification of this Convention. The State must meet its commitments to provide resources to educate children with disabilities in mainstream education.”
Dr Manning concluded:
“The range of issues covered in our report demonstrates that human rights cut across the functions of the State. This underlines our call for the IHRC to be made directly accountable to the Oireachtas. We believe that this would also lead to better awareness of human rights and ultimately, better protection of human rights in the State.”
Summary of Recommendations
Human rights infrastructure
- Develop a national action plan on human rights to mainstream human rights across all policy areas;
- Adequately fund and make the IHRC accountable to the Oireachtas;
Human Rights Education
- More systematic support and resources for human rights education in the education system including a National Action Plan on Human Rights Education;
- Prioritise human rights education and training for the Civil and Public Service, and for teachers/educators.
Ratification of Treaties
- Ratify and incorporate without delay the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture and other forms of Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and their Families and the Convention on Enforced Disappearances, Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child;
- Incorporate the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and other international treaties to which the state is a party into domestic law.
Equality
- Amend Article 40.1 of the Constitution to guarantee equality for all and to proscribe discrimination (direct and indirect) in any area of law on non-exhaustive grounds;
- Amend Article 41.2 of the Constitution with language which is gender neutral;
- Grounds in the equality legislation should be expanded to include ‘or other status’;
- Positive measures should be used to increase women’s participation in politics, public sector boards, management of educational institutions and business;
- Introduce legislation to give full legal recognition to transgendered persons.
Disability
- Ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Fully implement the Disability Act 2005, the Education for Persons with Special Needs Act 2004 and the Health Act 2007 to ensure independent inspections of care homes for people with intellectual disabilities;
- Meet commitments to provide resources to educate children with disabilities in mainstream education.
Children
- Referendum to amend the Constitution on children’s rights; the amendment should be justiciable and include express reference to the best interests of the child being the primary consideration.
International Aid and Trade
- Human rights should be central feature of international development aid and all other aspects of Ireland’s foreign policy
Criminal Justice
- Limit the use of criminal trial without jury to exceptional circumstances;
- All people arrested for a criminal offence should have a legal representative present during questioning by An Garda Síochána;
- Introduce a comprehensive and well resourced scheme of criminal & civil legal aid on a statutory footing and available as of right.
Prisons
- End ‘slopping out’ in prisons and deal with overcrowding immediately;
- Ratify without delay the Optional Protocol to the Convention on Torture, and other forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Establish an independent and resourced mechanism to ensure oversight of places of detention;
- Establish Prisoner Ombudsman;
- Develop penal policy with focus on the development of alternative more non-custodial sanctions;
- Remand prisoners should be detained in separate facilities from convicted prisoners.
Migration and Immigration
- Ensure asylum seeker applications are dealt with fairly and transparently and are not kept in Direct Provision centres for more than 1 year;
- Greater legislative and policy protections for vulnerable migrant workers including women migrant workers, particularly those in domestic households;
- Victims of human trafficking should be granted leave to remain on humanitarian grounds having regard to the personal situation of the victim of trafficking, particularly for child victims of trafficking;
- An Garda Síochána, in conjunction with the Anti-trafficking unit, should ensure that the standard of proof required for assessing whether people are victims of trafficking should be applied consistently and in a correct manner;
- Introduce an administrative scheme for the families of Irish citizen children in response to a recent European Court of Justice Judgment.
Travellers
- Recognise Travellers as an ethnic group;
- Provide sufficient resources to implement the 2006 Traveller Education Strategy with the involvement of Travellers and their representative bodies;
- Greater investment in Traveller Health Strategies to tackle consistently poor health outcomes;
- Repeal or amend the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2002 which disproportionally affects Travellers where adequate accommodation is not provided by the local authorities;
- Enforce the implement of the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998 at national level rather than being left to the discretion of local authorities.
Health/Mental Health
- Public health strategies should be human rights based and the delivery of services people centred;
- People with intellectual disabilities should be moved out of psychiatric institutions to appropriate community settings;
- The Mental Health Act 2001 should be amended to satisfy the requirements of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities;
- Mental capacity legislation should be introduced immediately to replace the outdated Wards of Court system;
- Conditions in psychiatric facilities need to be improved.
Poverty & Social Welfare
- Introduce the principle of non-retrogression into all economic policies so that State bodies must undertake an assessment of the impact of welfare and service related decisions on people in vulnerable and disadvantaged situations;
- Review the Habitual Residence Condition to ensure it is not resulting in denial of access to essential services;
- Take steps to remedy the current lack of protection of the rights of local authority tenants by amending the existing Housing Act 1966, which allows a local authority to summarily recover possession of a dwelling from a tenant.
Education
- Provide greater choice in the range of available schools to reflect greater diversity and the changing nature of Irish society;
- Legislation and policy should be reviewed to ensure that people of non-faith or minority religious backgrounds are not deterred from training or taking up employment as teachers in the State.
ENDS/
For further information, please contact:
Fidelma Joyce, IHRC, Mob: 087 783 4939
re there are independent bodies whose mandate includes monitoring of racist incidents and the promotion of anti-poverty policy.