Human Rights in Ireland

We are very pleased to feature this guest contribution from Catherine Kenny, a researcher on an IRCHSS-funded Senior Fellowship project, led by Professor Siobhán Mullally, University College Cork. The research team includes Dr Cliodhna Murphy, Post-Doc Fellow. The project will focus specifically on recent developments in the EU and selected Member States: Ireland, UK, France, the Netherlands and Sweden.

In recent years there have been significant developments in the expansion of international human rights standards for the protection of non-citizens. This blog post examines the progressive development of international standards relating to the rights of migrant domestic workers, a group that is marginalised not only because of their frequently precarious migration status, but also because of the often hidden and isolated nature of their work. In 2011 the ILO adopted a Convention and Recommendation on Decent Work for Domestic Workers. The rights of migrant domestic workers were the subject of the first General Comment adopted by the UN Committee on the Rights of Migrant Workers and their Families in 2010. Domestic work, and the particular challenges faced by migrant domestic workers, is also addressed by the UN CEDAW Committee in their 2009 General Recommendation on Women Migrant Workers. These developments and their implications for EU migration law and policy is the subject of a recently launched Irish Research Council Senior Fellowship project, led by Professor Siobhán Mullally, University College Cork.  Read Full Post »

The old adage that a week is a long time in politics is one that is readily accepted in liberal polities, though it reflects more the rapid changes of personal power due to scandals and party shifts than the glacial progress of modern politics. It may explain the rather exaggerated expectations of what can be achieved in the space of a year in societies with a far weaker state apparatus. Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of the beginning of the Egyptian revolution and has attracted tens of thousands of people gathered in Tahrir Square to mark the event that led to the toppling of former President Hosni Mubarak. Despite a significant decrease in the quantity of human rights abuses and the very significant fact that last week Egypt inaugurated its newly elected parliament in which Islamists of various colours took 73% of the vote, the progress is Egypt has been treated with a large degree of scepticism among the western media media and NGOs. The primary reason for this is of course the apparent endurance of repressive rule by the army which has continued some of the practices of the prior regime. Read Full Post »

Balthazar Garzon, the Spanish judge who served on Spain’s central criminal court and the  Juzgado Central de Instrucción No. 5, which investigates the most important criminal cases in Spain, including terrorism, organised crime and money laundering, yesterday went on trial over accusations that he had abused his powers to investigate atrocities committed during the Spanish Civil War. (For a brief bio of Garzon, see here, for coverage of the case see here, here and here). Garzon will be familiar to many for his role in ordering the extradition of Chile’s former dictator Augusto Pinochet from Britain to face charges of human rights abuses. He has also pursued members of the former dictatorship in Argentina, indicted Osama bin Laden and probed abuses at the US prison for terrorism suspects at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. Domestically, he spearheaded Spain’s fight against political corruption and against terrorism by ETA. Read Full Post »

As part of its continuing development, the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University intends to appoint a Professor in Law. The appointment, for a fixed term of ten years, will commence on 1 September 2012. This is a new appointment and is an indication of a firm commitment by the university to the development of law at DCU.

Applications are welcome from candidates with a demonstrated track record of publications in high impact academic journals and who are committed to the development of teaching and research in law. The successful candidates will be expected to play a major role in providing leadership and strategic direction to law in DCU. They will make a substantial contribution to the development and delivery of the School’s existing taught programmes, in particular the BCL(Law and Society) and also in the planning and delivery of future developments in law. They should have a track record in leading research teams and a commitment to the generation of external research funding for the school. Read Full Post »

Last Sunday Adrian Weckler had a piece in the Sunday Business Post reporting a conversation with Minister for State, Séan Sherlock (left), about his intention to introduce legislation that would provide for extensive ISP blocking in Ireland (summary on TJ McIntyre’s blog). Detail is somewhat light, although unsurprisingly so really as the provisions are to be contained in a Statutory Instrument and therefore will not be susceptible to open parliamentary debate and contestation. Minister Sherlock is engaging extensively on this matter on his twitter page, and argues that the SI simply clarifies the law in light of the decision in EMI v UPC, the difficulty seems to be in terms of clarity and scope. In essence, the idea is to allow for websites that carry copyrighted material to be blocked, which on the face of it seems to be a laudable enough objective. After all, the holder of intellectual property does require protection from piracy, and it is quite legitimate for the state to undertake steps to prevent illegal copyright infringement. The core difficulty from a human rights perspective is the potential scope of this power. Read Full Post »

Earlier this month, the Minister for Justice issued a statement which offered an insight into the effect that the recession has had on the immigration and asylum system in Ireland. While reflecting on measures that were implemented in 2011, the statement also outlined law and policy changes in the area of immigration and asylum for the coming year. What is clear is that such areas continue to be matters of concern for the government, despite the fact that there has been a significant drop in the number of those actually entering Ireland, particularly in the case of asylum seekers. The statement also indicates that the government is intending to introduce a number of changes to the manner in which citizenship is acquired in Ireland, signalling a sudden renewed interest in issues related to integration what is now expected of those who wish to become Irish by naturalisation. Read Full Post »

We are delighted to welcome this guest post from Verona Ní Dhrisceoil. Verona is currently completing a PhD in the area of law and language rights in University College Cork, under the supervision of Professor Siobhan Mullally. Her PhD has been funded by the Higher Education Authority.  Verona has worked as a legal researcher for the Law Reform Commission of Ireland and the Irish Penal Reform Trust, and in 2010, was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship.

Recent government announcements proposing a Review of the Official Languages Act 2003 and a merging of the Office of the Language Commissioner with the Office of the Ombudsman have brought Irish language rights issues to the forefront of public and academic debate. The two separate but related proposals arise as part of the government’s National Plan for Recovery.

In March 2011, the government published an economic recovery plan titled Towards Recovery: Programme for National Government 2011-2016. In it, seven pledges were made to the Irish language under the An Ghaeilge agus An Ghaeltacht section. With specific reference to legislative protection, the Programme stated that a review of the Official Languages Act 2003 (OLA) will be carried out “to ensure expenditure on the language is best targeted towards the development of the language and that obligations are imposed appropriately in response to demand from citizens.” On this basis, the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, launched A Review of the Official Languages Act, in November 2011. As part of the review process, the Department has invited submissions evaluating the implementation of the Act, from interested parties. Submissions are to be made to the Department on or before the 31 January 2012. As part of the consultative process, the Department has also published a bilingual survey on its website to afford respondents the opportunity to indicate their views on the provision of public services in the Irish language.

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We are very pleased to feature this guest contribution from Dug Cubie, a PhD student in UCC.

Mary Robinson, President of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice (MRFCJ), delivered a lecture at UCC’s Centre for Global Development titled ‘Climate Justice Post Durban’ on 18 January 2012. Dr. Robinson explored the outcomes of the most recent UN climate change conference, COP17, which took place in Durban, South Africa, in December 2011, from a climate justice perspective and the extent to which it addressed the needs of those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.  COP17, she said, was concerned with “what I believe to be the most critical issue we all face – the future of our planet. In these times of economic crisis, amid worries about our own and the European and international economies, it is not surprising that attention focuses on our immediate problems. But, make no mistake about it, we ignore the threat posed by climate change at our peril.” Read Full Post »

Article 2(4) of the UN Charter as supplemented by Article 51 provides strict limits on the state’s right to use force. However, it is unclear whether Article 2(4) also prohibits transnational armed groups from using force. Therefore, the question whether violent acts by transnational armed groups can be categorised as armed attacks within the meaning of the UN Charter has implications for how states are permitted to respond to violent acts by transnational armed groups and for the extent to which International Humanitarian Law regulates these acts. This post will examine whether violent acts by transnational armed groups can be classified as an armed attack under the UN Charter and thereby prohibited under International Law.

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The Public Interest Law Alliance (PILA) is holding a practitioner seminar, “The Role of Non-Governmental Organisations in Public Interest Litigation” on Thursday 9 February from 4-5.45pm at the Distillery Building, Dublin 1. The speakers are Caoilfhionn Gallagher (Barrister at London’s Doughty Street Chambers), Liam Herrick (Executive Director of IPRT) and TJ McIntyre (Lecturer at UCD); and the Chairperson is Prof Colin Harvey (Head of Law School,  Queen’s University Belfast).

The seminar is free and open to all those interested in the topic. CPD Points are available for legal practitioners. RSVP to events@pila.ieand find out more at www.pila.ie.