Oct 5, 2011
Ireland and the Universal Periodic Review: 06 October 2011 at 8 a.m.
Tomorrow, Ireland will have its human rights record reviewed under the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR) procedure. Last December, Danielle Kennan and I hosted a blog-symposium that considered some aspects of Ireland’s human rights record in areas such as the role of civil society in informing the UN Human Rights Council of potential human rights issues in Ireland, the rights of children and the rights of prisoners. Since this symposium, there has been engagement by government and non-governmental organisations with wider society on problematic areas of Irish law that may not meet international minimum human rights protection standards. The final Irish UPR Report can be accessed here, while the UN summary of civil society submissions can be viewed here.
Rights Now will be live streaming Ireland’s UPR examination by the UN Human Rights Council from 8.00 am on Thursday, 06 October 2011. For those in and around Dublin, Rights Now will be hosting a breakfast viewing of Ireland’s UPR Review from 8 am in Liberty Hall, Dublin. In Cork, NASC, the Irish Immigrant Support Centre, will be hosting a viewing (as well as their open day) over coffee from 8 am in Mary Street. In Limerick, Doras Luimní will be hosting a viewing of Ireland’s UPR examination from 8am.
I do stand by the comments I made last December:
It would be foolish not to recognise that the make-up of the UN Human Rights Council consists of a number of countries whose human rights records are less than ideal. In fact, many of the countries have amongst countless other grievous violations of fundamental human rights, engaged in torture, political oppression, gross violations of basic socio-economic rights and suppression of minority rights. While Ireland has also engaged in violations of internationally protected human rights, it has to be accepted that Ireland’s record of disrespect and failure to protect does not reach the level of some of those on the Human Rights Council. Having such a political review (real or perceived) may lead to public dismissal of genuine concerns the Human Rights Council has with Ireland’s human rights protections. The UPR process has in my view, the potential to undermine the work of the human rights treaty bodies, who may be cast in the same light as the UN Human Rights Council. The observations of the various human rights treaty bodies often get minimal coverage, however given that this is a review by a main organ of the UN tasked with assessing state compliance, it may receive more discussion within national fora.
In engaging with the UPR process, its limitations must be clearly explained, the possible political influence that respective states may have must be recognised and where the process provides recommendations which Ireland should take heed of, these should be reported with reference to similar (if any) recommendations which have been made by the UN human rights treaty bodies.
However, I probably should admit that the UPR process may be a useful exercise in examining human rights issues in a more holistic and aggregated way than the current system of treaty body reporting that Ireland undertakes. The outcome of the review will nevertheless be interesting, in that it provides yet another tool for individuals and civil society organisations to hold the Irish government to account for human rights obligations that they have accepted as applying to all in the state.
