Irish people are being denied their full human rights across a number of areas including health, housing, education and religious expression, a coalition of human rights organisations and NGOs has warned.
Their report, Your Rights. Right Now, comes in advance of Ireland's first full hearing before the United Nations to defend its human rights record under the UN periodic review system. The hearing takes place in Geneva on October 6th.
The 17-member coalition, which includes the Children's Rights Alliance, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, the Irish Family Planning Association and Ictu, is calling on the public to "Remember the Date". A large banner to this effect was draped over much of the exterior of Liberty Hall in Dublin today.
According to the report, while Ireland is a champion of human rights abroad, it "fails to adequately promote and protect human rights at home".
It says the State-sponsored human rights and equality infrastructure is "strong in principle but weak in practice"; the powers of the Irish Human Rights Commission and the Equality Authority appear strong but are "deficient in practice" and the State's failure to ratify six core human rights treaties, despite having signed them, makes them "unenforceable in the Irish courts".
Most important of these are the optional protocol to the Convention Against Torture and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
On the rights of the child the report says "children are treated differently depending on the marital status of their parents; the 'best interests of the child principle' is not applied by the Irish Supreme Court" and recommends that a Children's Rights referendum be expedited. A duty should also be provided in law to report suspected child abuse.
On the at the right to education, it says recent cuts to learning support services, including Traveller-specific supports and language supports “disproportionately affect children from minority groups".
Also, given the manner in which religion is incorporated into the school day, it is "impractical" to remove children from religious curricular content.
The report says the State has failed to recognise Travellers as an ethnic group, contrary to the recommendations of two UN Committees. "This lack of recognition allows the State to enact legislation which impacts on Travellers' traditional nomadic way of life, leading to the forced assimilation of Travellers into mainstream society."
The lives of people with intellectual disabilities, people with mental ill-health and neurological conditions and older people are "impaired by the antiquated framework around capacity for decision-making dating back to 1871". The report calls for the enactment of the Mental Capacity Bill.
Mark Kelly, Director of the ICCL, said investing in the human rights infrastructure made long-term economic sense, protecting the State against future claims for rights breaches. "People have these rights. They are not being recognised in Irish law," he said.
Proceedings at the UN in Geneva can be viewed live at rightsnow.ie on October 6th.
