Update on the establishment of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission

This is the text of a presentation given by FLAC Senior Solicitor Michael Farrell recently to the Sheehy Skeffington School 2014.

He was a member of the Irish Human Rights Commission from 2000 to 2011 and a member of the Working Group advising on the establishment of the new merged Commission in 2011- 2012.

It is deeply disappointing that three years after this Government came to power and promised to repair the damage done by their predecessors to the Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) and the Equality Authority by creating a new and enhanced Human Rights and Equality Commission, it is only within the last week that they have introduced a Bill to put the new body on a proper legal basis.

In the meantime a policy of almost studied neglect has reduced the two existing bodies to mere shadows of their former selves.  Staff numbers have reached their lowest point since the two bodies were set up around 14 years ago.  There is no Chief Commissioner for either the IHRC or the Equality Authority, and the Authority is now minus its Chief Executive as well.

The Irish human rights and equality watchdogs were once held out as models for other countries to follow.  Now they are barely treading water and, for an example of the effect of this, they played no role in the recent crisis that has seriously undermined confidence in An Garda Síochána.

This is not the fault of the remaining staff of the two bodies or the Commissioners designate of the new Commission who are currently serving as members of the boards of the existing bodies.  They are working hard and doing their best with wholly inadequate resources and a vacuum at the top.

Introducing the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Bill a few days ago, Justice Minster Alan Shatter said he had made a personal commitment to strengthen the new merged body and to ensure that it “complies unequivocally” with the UN’s Paris Principles for national human rights or equality bodies.

But will this Bill serve that purpose?   The core element of the Paris Principles is that national human rights and equality bodies must be genuinely independent of Government.  But under this Bill the new IHREC will be under the ‘umbrella’ of the Department of Justice and Equality, which will determine its funding and its staffing complement, and will have a significant influence on its activities.  References to the Minister for Justice and Equality appear in nearly every other paragraph in the Bill.

And, of course, the Department of Justice and Equality is the single Government Department most likely to come under scrutiny from the new Commission and is the Department that would have the greatest incentive to control the Commission’s work.

Relations between the Department of Justice and the IHRC were often fraught in the past and when the IHRC was placed under the umbrella of the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs for some months in 2010, it was regarded as a blessed relief by many staff and Commissioners.

The outgoing IHRC and a number of international human rights bodies have called for the new Commission to be removed from under the shadow of any Government Department and made answerable only to the Oireachtas, like the Office of the Ombudsman.

That would be the best solution, but if that is a step too far for the current Government, then transfer to a Department that is unlikely to be the subject of frequent complaints to the Commission would be the next best option, together with removing the constant references to the Minister throughout the Bill.

Should any of this matter to civil society and NGOs working at the coalface with marginalised and disadvantaged communities?

In our increasingly bureaucratic and professionalised society, there is a need for similar levels of professionalisation and expertise to be available to those seeking to hold the Government to account.  And the events of the last few months, such as the ‘disgusting’ treatment of whistle-blowers in An Garda Síochána, the long-term interception of phone calls in Garda stations and prisons, and the benign neglect, to put it at its mildest, of the Department of Justice in relation to all this, demonstrate clearly the need for a strong, well-resourced and fully independent watchdog to watch the watchers and the phone tappers.

A well-funded and strongly independent Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission could be a powerful ally to those struggling daily to create a better and fairer society.  There is an opportunity now to influence the character and powers of that body.  It is an opportunity that should be taken.

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