Guest Article by ICCL’s Deirdre Duffy - UN Human Rights Council Legacy Project

This is a guest article by Deirdre Duffy, Senior Research and Policy Programme Manager at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.

Ireland sits on the UN Human Rights Council from January 2013 until December 2015. The UN Human Rights Council is the most important human rights body in the UN system.

This is a prestigious diplomatic position but what legacy will our membership of the Council have for human rights at home?

During this period, Ireland will submit its Mid-Term Report under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and will be examined by the UN Human Rights Committee under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Also within this timeframe, Ireland has further reporting obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has brought together a number of leading civil society organisations to oversee the Legacy Project which will track the progress of seven key impact areas during Ireland’s membership of the Council. We believe that implementation of UN recommendations at home bolsters a country’s capacity to promote and protect human rights abroad. It is crucial that Ireland not only import human rights principles abroad during its Human Rights Council tenure, but, at the same time, takes responsibility for ensuring Irish law and policy meets international human rights standards.

The Legacy project seven key impact areas are:

1. Ratify International Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities
2. Ratify Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture
3. Effective National Human Rights Institution
4. Marriage Equality
5. Gender Recognition
6. Recognition of Travellers as an Ethnic Minority
7. Reproductive Justice

On Friday 21 March 2014, Ireland’s Mid-Term UPR Report will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council. The ICCL made a formal written statement to the UN Human Rights Council highlighting gaps in implementation of the UPR recommendations, including on the following:

• Ratification of the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (ICRPD)
• Progression on long-promised legislation such as the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill and the Gender Recognition Bill
• Legal recognition of Travellers as an ethnic minority
• Constitutional reform on amending the clause on women in the home
• Efforts to combat racism, including an updated National Action Plan against Racism

If you would like to add your voice to this civil society statement, please email rightsnow@iccl.ie.

Beyond the UPR interim reporting process, Ireland’s Fourth Periodic Examination under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights will bring many of the same issues to the fore. The Legacy Steering Group has made a submission to the Seanad Public Consultation Committee and will be engaging further with the UN Human Rights Committee in the run up to the ICCPR examination in July 2014.

To assist this work, we have revamped our website www.rightsnow.ie which contains information on the Legacy project, UPR, ICCPR and a dedicated section on UN human rights reporting.

For more information on the Legacy project, please email rightsnow@iccl.ie.