Following a visit to Ireland in November 2016, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muižnieks, has released a report calling on the Irish government to ensure that the economic upturn benefits the most vulnerable groups and to promote equality of Travellers, women and children by removing the barriers that disproportionately hinder them from fully enjoying their rights.
The Commissioner welcomed the recent recognition of Travellers’ ethnicity, however, remains concerned by the very negative impact of a reduction in the State’s support for the Traveller community following the economic crisis in 2008. The report suggests reinvestment, at local level, in the community and improvement of access of Travellers and Roma to education, health, housing and employment, as well as to legal remedies in cases of discrimination.
The Commissioner also calls on the Irish authorities to tackle persistent gender inequalities, including through a review of the constitutional provisions that perpetuate negative stereotypes against women and through long-term measures aimed at overcoming gender bias in the media and education system. Furthermore, the report encourages improvement of legislation and overall response to domestic violence, including by improving access to emergency safety orders and accommodation for women victims of violence. He also recommends that Ireland ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence as soon as possible as it “provides a framework and methodology to change social norms and practices that reproduce gender-based violence”.
Additionally, the Commissioner has strongly urged the Irish authorities to adopt legislation to remove all impediments to women’s access to safe and legal abortion. The report sees decriminalising abortion within reasonable gestational limits as essential to women’s equality; at the very minimum, abortion performed to preserve the physical and mental health of women, or in cases of fatal foetal abnormality, rape or incest should be made lawful. The Commissioner has further sought the authorities to ensure that mandatory, comprehensive and non-judgemental sexuality education is taught in all schools in Ireland in order to protect the sexual and reproductive rights of all, including women.
In a context of growing child poverty, including a significant rise in child homelessness, the Commissioner has called on the government to reverse the negative impact of austerity measures on children’s access to social protection, education and health. The Commissioner also draws the attention of the authorities to the need to address shortcomings in the protection of the rights of immigrant children flowing from the system of Direct Provision accommodation for asylum seekers and from the lack of avenues allowing undocumented children to secure a legal status. Stressing the need to promote an inclusive education in a context where the vast majority of state-funded schools are denominational, the Commissioner recommends that the Irish authorities remove the exemption allowing state-funded schools to use a child’s religion as admission criteria and ensure options for students to opt-out from religious classes.
Noting that the State has taken a number of measures to address past human rights abuses against women and children in institutions, including women’s homes, schools and healthcare institutions, the Commissioner says the Irish authorities should ensure full respect of the applicable international human rights standards when dealing with all such abuses. Devoting specific attention to the past abuses that occurred in the context of the Magdalene Laundries, the Mother and Baby Homes, medical procedures for childbirth in maternities, and sexual abuses in national schools, the Commissioner recalls that all groups of victims of past serious human rights abuse have a right to truth, full support and effective remedies, as well as prompt, independent and thorough investigations into allegations of abuses capable of ensuring accountability.
The Irish government has issued observations on the report of the Commission, which can be read here.
Click here to read the Commissioner for Human Rights report on Ireland.