Human Rights in Ireland

On Thursday, June 7th 2012, the Public Interest Law Alliance and the PILS Project will host a conference in Belfast on Using international standards beyond the European Convention on Human Rights. The keynote speaker will be Asma Jahangir, an internationally recognised public interest lawyer, expert on international human rights law, and President of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan. Break-out sessions on socio-economic rights, equality and non-discrimination and NGOs and lawyer collaboration will include practitioners, activists, members of the judiciary and academics discussing how international human rights law can assist domestic rights litigation. The full conference programme can be accessed here, while those wishing to attend can register here.

Some 12 years after the introduction of the direct provision system for asylum seekers in Ireland, there is an urgent need for this system to be placed on a legislative basis. Asylum seekers are prohibited from working in Ireland and, since 2009, have no access whatsoever to the general social welfare system. Instead, asylum seekers are provided with accommodation on a bed and board basis, and given an allowance of €19.10 per week per adult and €9.60 per week per child. I have previously discussed issues relating to direct provision on this blog, including value for money, housing and human rights, children in the direct provision system, separated children in Ireland, women in the direct provision system.

Direct provision was introduced in April 2000 due to the perceived pull factor access to the mainstream welfare system was supposedly having on the numbers claiming asylum in Ireland. (My article on the direct provision system provides further background to the introduction of this system). The purported legal basis for the introduction of the system of direct provision was the system of supplementary welfare allowance, whereby the needs of asylum seekers were to be met in kind, through the provision of bed, board and a small allowance. It was not until 2003 that legislation was introduced to prevent asylum seekers from receiving rent allowance.[1] The habitual residence condition was introduced shortly afterwards, which restricted access to welfare payments for those who were not habitually resident in Ireland.

From freedom of information documents that I have received from the Department of Social Protection Read Full Post »

The Transitional Justice Institute (TJI) is hosting its 5th annual Summer School on Transitional Justice on the theme of: Gender, Conflict and UN Security Council Resolution 1325. The Summer School will be held from 25-29 June 2012 at the Jordanstown campus of the University of Ulster, located on the north shore of Belfast Lough, Northern Ireland. The Summer School is a week-long residential course, consisting of a series of interactive lectures, workshops and roundtable discussions.  It is aimed at both postgraduate students and practitioners working in the field of transitional justice and human rights.

This year the summer school will give a broad and comprehensive overview to the regulation of women’s rights and needs in conflict and post-conflict situations.  Given the recent ten year anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, a particular focus of the summer school will be on the creation, enforcement, and capacity of UNSC 1325 and other related United Nations Security Council resolutions to addressed the needs, exclusions and rights of women in conflict and post-conflict settings.

The academic faculty for the TJI Summer School includes experts on issues of gender and conflict Read Full Post »

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.

The Centre for Global Development, UCC in collaboration with Front Line Defenders and UCC’s Centre for Criminal Justice and Human Rights and Institute for Social Sciences 21 (ISS21) will host a lecture by Human Rights Activist, James Kofi Annan on Tuesday, December 6th. The lecture will take place in Boole II Lecture Theatre, UCC Campus, 6.00 -7.30pm. Members of the public are invited to attend and admission is free.

The talk will focus on James Kofi Annan’s experiences in working on securing the safety and rehabilitation of former child slaves under the auspices of Ghanaian NGO Challenging Heights.   James Kofi Annan was sold into slavery at the age of 6 and forced into dangerous work on fishing boats in Ghana for seven years. He finally escaped, taught himself to read, got a college education, and founded a small school to help child slavery survivors. In 2003, he founded Challenging Heights, a Ghanaian NGO dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating and educating child survivors of slavery. Further information on James Kofi Annan is available here.   The event marks the anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders (Dec 9th) and International Human Rights Day (Dec 10th).

Today, is the final day of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, Do 1 Thing campaign. UNHCR Ireland’s campaign site can be viewed here. In previous posts I have :

• Defined the terms ‘refugee’ and ‘asylum seeker’;
• Examined decision making in the status determination process;
• Considered subsidiary protection status; and,
• Focused on sexuality and refugee status.

Needless to say, there are many other issues in relation to asylum seekers and refugees in Ireland, such as the direct provision system and issues surrounding deportation of unsuccessful asylum seekers. However, for my final contribution to UNHCR’s #do1thing campaign, I will outline the rights of those recognised as refugees in Ireland. (It should be noted however, that Ireland has the lowest refugee recognition rate in the whole of the European Union at first instance). Section 3 of the Refugee Act 1996 provides refugees with rights to Read Full Post »

In an earlier post, I outlined the core meaning of the terms refugee and asylum seeker. In addition to refugee protection in Ireland, an asylum seeker who fails to fall within the terms of this definition may be entitled to subsidiary protection. Subsidiary protection came about as a result of European Union law. Where an asylum seeker can show that she will face a real risk of serious harm in her home country, she will be entitled to subsidiary protection. Serious harm is defined as the:

• death penalty or execution;
• torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; and/or
• a serious and individual risk to a civilian’s life or person by reason of indiscriminate violence Read Full Post »

The definition of refugee includes those who are members of a particular social group. Section 1 of the Refugee Act 1996 defines this ground as including (amongst others) those persecuted for reasons of their sexual orientation. In a recent United Kingdom Supreme Court decision, HJ (Iran) and HT (Cameroon) v Secretary of State for the Home Department the question that arose was whether a person had to be ‘discrete’ in relation to their sexuality so as to avoid persecution by the state. The High Court and Court of Appeal for England and Wales response to this question was ‘yes’. The UK Supreme Court, however, rejected this approach. Lord Roger (at para. 76) inverted the question posed in this case, questioning whether:

a straight man or woman could find it reasonably tolerable to conceal his or her sexual identity indefinitely to avoid suffering persecution.

Fiona de Londras noted in a previous post, how Irish decision makers were finding against the credibility of refugee applicants for not knowing or being involved in the gay rights movement or arguing that they could be ‘discrete’ if returned to their countries of origin. This is a wholly incorrect approach Read Full Post »

The Refugee Appeals Tribunal (RAT) do not make their decisions publically available. In 2006, two barristers resigned resigned amid allegations of secrecy of the RAT and allegations of inconsistency in decision-making. The Supreme Court decided in 2006 that previous relevant decisions had to made available to legal representatives of those appearing before the RAT. Unlike similar refugee status determination bodies in the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand, decisions of the RAT are not available to the public at large. To ensure public confidence in the refugee status determination system, such decisions should be made publicly available, with identifying features of the refugee applicant redacted. As was stated by McDonagh in 2005, this would lead to more confidence in the refugee appeals system in Ireland. With the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill (see here) to come before the Irish Parliament in the near future, this is the ideal opportunity to have a general rule, subject to limited exceptions, that decisions of any reformed refugee appeals system are published. In the mean-time, RAT should make its decisions publicly available, which is the norm in most other developed countries.

The Irish Human Rights Commission and the Law Society are holding their 9th Annual Human Rights Conference on 22 October 2011 from 10am to 2.30pm in the President’s Hall, Blackhall Place. The theme of this conference is the implications of the United Nations Universal Periodic Review for Ireland. Ireland’s draft UPR outcome is available here.  The keynote conference address will be given by Ms Anastasia Crickley, UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Other speakers include: Geraldine Hynes, Equality Authority, Susan McKay, National Women’s Council of Ireland, Professor William Binchy, Trinity College Dublin and Commissioner of the IHRC, Martin Collins, Pavee Point and former Commissioner of the IHRC, Siobhan O’Donoghue, Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland, Judge Michael Reilly, Inspector of Prisons, Candy Murphy, Social and Economic Consultant and John Dolan, National Disability Federation.

Those wishing to attend can contact  Anthea Moore on 01 672 4961 or email a.moore[at]lawsociety.ie.