After years of campaigning by civil society the Government is taking steps to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT), an innovative treaty that requires the inspection of all places of detention by national and international bodies in order to prevent torture and ill treatment.
This is a welcome move in a country that has a dark history of institutionalising its most vulnerable but draft legislation to create the new inspection mechanisms has excluded Direct Provision Centres and other social and care settings. Irish Council for Civil Liberties has made a submission to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice urging the inclusion of Direct Provision Centres and other institutions in social and care settings in this legislation.
ICCL’s Head of Legal and Policy, Doireann Ansbro said:
"For years the Government has ignored civil society calls to ratify OPCAT. It is positive that legislation is finally being drafted to ensure that there are proper inspections of all places of detention in the State. But the exclusion of Direct Provision Centres from these new safeguards is very concerning.
Human rights inspections ensure everyone is safe. This legislation must be as broad as possible to ensure that everyone living in residential care settings, including Direct Provision Centres and Nursing Homes is protected against ill treatment. We all deserve to feel safe, no matter where we call home."
OPCAT experts have made clear that inspections carried out by the new inspection body (known as the National Preventive Mechanism) should prioritise places where human rights abuses are known to occur. Human rights issues are well documented in Direct Provision Centres and other residential institutions. Recent tragic deaths underline the importance of preventive inspections. ICCL is particularly concerned with unresolved cases such as the death of Sylva Tukula in 2018, a transgender woman who was found dead in the all-male Great Western House Direct Provision centre in Galway, despite identifying as a woman who was then buried alone, without her friends or family being notified. A human rights-based inspection could have prevented this tragedy.
ICCL is calling for the immediate ratification of OPCAT to allow its expert body to assist government in drafting the national legislation. It is concerned that the Draft General Scheme of the Inspection of Places of Detention Bill 2022 does not fully comply with OPCAT’s requirements. Beyond ICCL’s call to expand the narrow definition of ‘Places of Detention’ it is calling for guarantees that unannounced inspections can take place and better assurances that the new inspection body will be fully independent of government.
A positive development in the legislation is that inspections of garda custody suites will have a statutory basis for the first time. But ICCL is concerned that this legislation doesn’t include bodies with policing expertise such as the Garda Inspectorate in the new National Preventive Mechanism. It has called for the legislation to be amended to include such expertise.
ICCL's submission to Government on the above can be read in full by clicking here.