Human Rights in Ireland

The Law Society of Ireland will host the Human Rights Committee’s 8^th Annual Human Rights Lecture, “Finding the Equilibrium” on Thursday, May 10^th at 6pm in the Presidents’ Hall, Law Society of Ireland, Blackhall Place, Dublin 7.   The lecture will be delivered by the Rt. Honourable Sir Declan Morgan, Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland. The lecture will deal with issues surrounding rights and responsibilities. It will be opened by Mr. Donald Binchy, the President of the Law Society, and the Honourable Mrs. Justice Susan Denham, Chief Justice of Ireland, will give the introduction.  Registration takes place from 5.15pm-6pm. The duration of the lecture will be approximately one hour. There is no charge for this event and all attendees are invited to a wine reception, which will follow the lecture. 

To reserve your place, please email Anthea Moore at: a.moore@lawsociety.ie or Tel: (01) 6724961.

A new report calls on the Government to ensure that companies respect human rights and to provide guidance to businesses on the requirements of human rights due diligence, including when operating overseas. Such due diligence should be a mandatory requirement underpinned by legislation, according to the report’s authors at the Irish Centre for Human Rights in NUI Galway.  ‘Business and Human Rights in Ireland’ aims to contribute to policy, practice and law on business and human rights in Ireland. The report will be officially launched this evening by Professor Michael O’Flaherty, who is a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee and Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.  Illustrative examples of business negatively impacting on human rights provide a context for the report. Prominent examples mentioned in the report include Irish technology companies implicated in Syrian censorship, the Corrib gas dispute involving Shell and Statoil, the working conditions of migrant workers engaged in mushroom picking, the treatment of GAMA construction workers, and the working conditions in the supply chain for Penneys/Primark.  Multinational companies headquartered in Ireland, such as Apple, Read Full Post »

Judgment in the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor will take place shortly in the Special Court for Sierra Leone.  You can see the judgment here.  Charles Taylor was charged with an 11-count indictment alleging responsibility for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed by rebel forces in Sierra Leone during a decade long civil war.  

He faces 5 counts of war crimes of terrorising civilians - murder, outrages on personal dignity, cruel treatment and looting and 5 counts of crimes against humanity - murder, rape, sexual slavery, mutilating and beating and enslavement and 1 count of other serious violations of humanitarian law in recruiting and using child soldiers.   He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.  The Taylor trial opened on 4 June 2007 in the Hague and was adjourned immediately after the Prosecution’s opening statement when he dismissed his defence team and requested new legal representation. Witness testimony commenced on 7 January 2008 and concluded on 12 November 2010. Closing arguments took place in February and March of 2011.  The Court heard live testimony from 94 Prosecution witnesses, and received written statements from four other witnesses.  The defence presented 21 witnesses with the defendant giving evidence in his defence.   The delivery of the judgment had taken nearly a year due to the complexity of the case.  At the Special Court for Sierra Leone as with other international tribunals, both the Prosecution and the Defence have a right to appeal. If Charles Taylor is acquitted of all charges, the appeals process will begin immediately. If he is found guilty on any of the 11 counts the trial chamber will schedule sentencing proceedings.

We are delighted to welcome this guest post from Aisling de Paor, a Ph.D candidate in the Centre for Disability Law and Policy at NUI Galway, and Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS) scholar. Aisling is a graduate of NUI Galway (BCL) and University College Cork (LL.M).  Aisling qualified as a solicitor and specialized primarily in employment law.

On 6^th March 2012, Marian Harkin MEP and Phil Prendergast MEP hosted a seminar on the topic of Genetic Discrimination. The event was organised by the Centre for Disability Law and Policy, NUI Galway, in conjunction with the European Disability Forum, and took place in the European Parliament, Brussels. This international seminar, which was chaired by Andre Gubbels (Belgian Ministry), was the first of its kind in the European Parliament and brought together a diverse range of leading experts in the area, with the objective of exploring the case for a European level response to protect the privacy of genetic information and to prevent genetic discrimination. The seminar highlighted the interdisciplinary nature of this area and focused on the interaction between genetic science, technology, ethics and the law, and in particular, how best to address this complex area. The event also looked at the challenges and practical problems that arise when attempting to Read Full Post »

We are delighted to welcome this Guest post from Dr Shane Darcy.  Dr Darcy is a lecturer at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland Galway. A previous version of this article appeared in the Sunday Business Post on 11 March 2012.

The news that products provided by Irish companies are being implicated in repression and human right abuses overseas should not come as a surprise, given the lack of adequate regulation here. Software sold in Syria by Dublin-based Cellusys and AdaptiveMobile has been reported as being used by the Syrian government to censor text messages by protestors challenging President Assad’s rule. This is a government which the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has accused of “gross, widespread and systematic human rights violations”, amounting perhaps to crimes against humanity. As Ireland increasingly positions itself as an export orientated economy, its commitment to human rights requires that it ensure that companies operating here are human rights compliant.

This is not the first instance of involvement by Irish companies in the suppression of human rights outside of Ireland. Bloomberg reported in October 2011 that a system sold by AdaptiveMobile may have been used by Iran’s law enforcement and security agencies in their repression of political activists. Cement Roadstone Holdings has been criticised for its 25% shareholding of Israeli company Mashav, which controls Nesher Cement, supplier of concrete for the construction of settlements and the ‘separation wall’, declared to be unlawful by the International Court of Justice. Human rights is not just a matter for Read Full Post »

We are delighted to welcome this Guest Post from Dr. Ciara Hackett.  Ciara is a lecturer in the School of Law at NUI Galway where she also serves as Deputy Director of the LL.M in Public Law.  Her research interests include corporate social responsibility, corporate governance, globalisation and marxist theories of development.

The framework rests on three main pillars.  First is States’ duty to protect against human rights abuses by third parties, including business enterprises through appropriate policies regulation and adjudication.  The second is the corporate responsibility to respect human rights (i.e. avoid infringing on rights and address adverse impacts) and finally the need for access by victims to remedy (para. 6).

Reactions to the principles suggest that the framework is a weak formulation and does not go far enough (see here).  Addressing this framework in the context of the on-going financial crisis and indeed the particular case of Ireland raises some questions as to the effectiveness of the framework or indeed whether or not the aims are realistic.  In particular this post refers to the foundational principles of the framework: that states must protect against human rights abuse in particular through effective policies, legislation and regulations.  This requires a re-imagining of the current Irish regulatory framework for addressing the responsibilities of business.

As society endeavours to emerge from the economic crisis, governments are faced with a balancing exercise between retaining or achieving a desired competitiveness in a post recessionary era and developing regulatory structures to ensure that the same problems do not occur again.  For states like Ireland the problem is more ingrained, stemming from the nature of an economy that was for so long Read Full Post »

The Centre for Disability Law and Policy (NUI Galway) and Amnesty International (Ireland) held a seminar today on getting legal capacity law right.  The seminar can be viewed here.  The seminar heard from Oliver Lewis from MDAC who spoke about the CRPD in international Best Practice on legal capacity law.  Christine Gordon who spoke about the lessons from British Columbia on supported decision-making.  Professor Gerard Quinn spoke about the challenges in realising supported decision-making.  The seminar was chaired by Colm O’Gorman the Executive Director, Amnesty International (Ireland) and was addressed by Kathleen Lynch the Minister for Disability, Equality, Mental Health and Older People.  One of the really interesting aspects of the seminar was the contribution from the “experts through experience” who spoke of their perspectives on legal capacity when decision-making is called into question.  Mary Farrell spoke about her experience in terms of her son who was made a Ward of Court following a High Court Award of damages for an acquired brain injury.  Paul Alford spoke about his experience of moving from an institutional setting to living independently in the community and making his own decisions about how he lived his life.  Bill Lloyd an advocate for older persons spoke about the deficiencies of Irish law in respecting the decision-making of one of his clients who was diagnosed with dementia.  Jim Walsh shared his experience and perspectives on decision-making and persons seen as having a mental health problem.

We are delighted to welcome this guest post from Aisling de Paor, a Ph.D candidate in the Centre for Disability Law and Policy at NUI Galway, and Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS) scholar. Aisling is a graduate of NUI Galway (BCL) and University College Cork (LL.M).  Aisling qualified as a solicitor and specialized primarily in employment law.

On Saturday 19^th November 2011, the Centre for Disability Law and Policy (in conjunction with the Burton Blatt Institute, Syracuse University, USA) hosted a conference entitled ‘Genetic Discrimination – Transatlantic Perspectives on the Case for a European Level Legal Response’ at National University of Ireland Galway.  This international conference, which was chaired by Justice John Mac Menamin of the High Court, was the first of its kind in Europe and brought together a diverse range of leading experts in the area, with the objective of exploring the case for a European level response to protect the privacy of genetic information and to prevent genetic discrimination. The conference highlighted the interdisciplinary nature of this area and focused on the interaction between genetic science, technology, ethics and the law, and in particular, how best to regulate this complex area. Read Full Post »

A one-day conference organised by the Irish Centre for Human Rights and the School of Law, NUI Galway entitled “Ireland and the United Nations Framework for Business and Human Rights” will take place on 24 March 2012 at the National University of Ireland Galway.  The conference seeks to explore and analyse issues of law and policy for Ireland arising from the 2011 adoption by the United Nations of Professor John Ruggie’s framework for business and human rights.  The framework emphasises a State’s duty to protect human rights, a corporate responsibility to respect human rights and the need to provide remedies to respond to violations of human rights by business.  This conference seeks to look beyond the voluntary corporate social responsibility approach to business and human rights; as Maurice Manning, President of the Irish Human Rights Commission has observed, “voluntarism can never be a substitute for global standards on businesses’ mandatory compliance with human rights”. The organisers welcome in particular contributions which address seek to address legal questions which arise in relation to the UN framework on business and human rights.  Ireland represents an obvious case study in this context, given the presence of numerous multinational corporations, increasing privatisation of public services and allegations of corporate involvement in human rights violations both in and outside of Ireland. The conference aims to address the following topics:

• Legal and policy approaches to regulation of Irish companies for human rights
• Obligations of the State and companies when public functions are privatised
• Role of extraterritorial jurisdiction in Irish law to address violations committed overseas by Irish companies or multinationals based here
• The potential role of criminal law to address violations of human rights by business
• Civil litigation as a means accountability – lessons from the Alien Tort Claims Act
• Remedies for victims

Abstract Submission

Abstracts should be sent by 21 December 2011 to: Dr Shane Darcy (shane.darcy@nuigalway.ie) and Dr Ciara Hackett (ciara.hackett@nuigalway.ie). Successful applicants will be informed in January 2012 of their acceptance to the conference. For further information and registration for the conference please contact: Hadeel Abu Hussein: h.abushussein1@nuigalway.ie

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe last week adopted a Recommendation that seeks to increase the participation of persons with disabilities in political and public life at all levels − local, regional, national and international.  The Recommendation is available here.  Between 80 – 100 million persons with disabilities live in the 47 Member States of the Council of Europe.  The Council of Europe noted that persons with disabilities often do not take part in the decision-making process as they face legal, physical, and societal barriers to participating. Through this Recommendation the Committee of Ministers seek to challenge this exclusion. The Recommendation aims to remove barriers and create conditions for active citizenship, without discrimination, for all and in all life settings. The Recommendation stresses that all persons with disabilities are entitled to express their views and should not be deprived of their right to vote or stand for election on the basis of disability.  This is a very progressive statement from the Committee of Ministers and goes some way towards countering the repressive position of the European Commission for Democracy Through Law (the Venice Commission) regarding the eligibility of persons with intellectual disability to stand for election and vote.   The Venice Commission in its“Interpretative Declaration to the Code of Good Practice In Electoral Matters on the Participation of People with Disabilities in Elections” stated:

Read Full Post »