Irish Council for Civil Liberties publishes Annual Report 2013

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has recently published their annual report for 2013. The report includes highlights of their work in 2013:

• Campaigning for the introduction of civil marriage equality in partnership with Marriage Equality and GLEN, for which the Government has agreed to hold a referendum in 2015.
• Appearances before the Constitutional Convention, specifically on the issues of marriage equality and the offence of blasphemy.
• Campaigning for reproductive justice, including offering expert legal advice to the Oireachtas Health Committee on the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill.
• Developments in criminal justice – including the right of access to a lawyer, and the right to their presence during Garda questioning.
• Engagement with the UN human rights treaty monitoring process across a range of treaty bodies, including the Human Rights Council and the UN Committee Against Torture.
• Human Rights Council Legacy Project tracking the implementation of human rights standards and UN recommendations in Ireland, coinciding with Ireland’s tenure on the Human Rights Council.

The ICCL note that they brought together eleven leading NGOs, including FLAC, in an ICCPR Steering Group to shadow Ireland’s Fourth examination under the ICCPR. In 2013, the Group prepared a joint submission to the UN Human Rights Committee in advance of the List of Issues and presented a Civil Society Report for Ireland’s examination, which took place on 14 and 15 July 2014 in Geneva. This report included issues of concern, including the status of implementation of previous Committee recommendations.

Click here to download the full ICCL annual report.