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 »

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 »

Last Wednesday, the European Court of Justice issued a flurry of judgments just before the Christmas break. Indeed, there were so many interesting and important decisions amongst the twenty or so handed down that seems foolish to consider any of them the ‘most important’. Nonetheless the judgment in NS and Others v SSHD (C-411/10) must be a contender for the title. The case concerns an asylum seeker in Britain who first entered the EU through Greece. The Dublin Regulation, which governs this aspect of EU asylum law, would ordinarily dictate that the applicant should be sent to Greece to have his asylum claim considered there. However, Mr Saeedi challenged his transfer to Greece, claiming that his human rights would be infringed by such a transfer as Greece would be unable to process his application. NS was joined with an Irish case, ME & Others v Refugee Applications Commissioner & MEJLR (C-493/10), which raised similar questions for EU law. Read Full Post »

Following tonight’s successful performance of Whoop it up for Liberty! in Druid Theatre, Galway we would like to share the texts from which extracts were chosen and included in the performance. This link will bring you to a google document which contains the original, full extracts, which have been modified for use in tonight’s performance. It also links the documents to their original source, if available online, and, where relevant, contains links to the images which we feel connect with the pieces chosen for the performance. Thanks again to everyone for supporting this project – we hope we have made a contribution to the open democratic arts, and to exploring further some aspects of Ireland’s human rights history. The performance has been recorded, and we hope to share some clips from the recording with you in the near future.

Many thanks to everyone who supported our funding efforts for Whoop it up for Liberty! Thanks to your support, we reached our funding target and are well on our way to producing this exciting performance in Druid Theatre, Galway on 10 December. Rehearsals are gearing up, and we have an amazing mix of people with personal experience of rights-violations, professional actors, and community activists involved in the performance.

We released many of the tickets for this event to those who donated to the project on Fund It, however, there are still a limited number of tickets available to anyone who would like to attend the performance in Galway on 10 December. The venue is fully accessible, and there will be a hearing loop provided at the performance. We are currently looking into providing other accessibility features, and would like for anyone who is interested in attending to let us know what their requirements are, and we will do our best to ensure that the performance is inclusive and accessible to all, within the constraints of our budget.

To reserve your ticket for the performance, contact Liam Thornton, and if you have specific accessibility requirements, you can contact me. We will be recording the performance on the night and will hope to make the recording available online afterwards – and will also publish the script of the performance on the blog after the performance.

We are delighted to welcome this second guest post from Anne Neylon. Anne is a PhD candidate at University College Cork. She is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford.

On October 31^st last, eighteen year old Angolan Mauro Manuel, who arrived in the Netherlands aged 10 as a separated child seeking asylum was told by the Dutch parliament that he may not remain in the state now that he is an adult. Although Mauro Manuel now sees the Netherlands as the only state with which he identifies, this attachment has not been deemed sufficient to allow him to stay on an indefinite basis. The case of Mauro Manuel raises questions about what citizenship really means and how the advance of globalization has acted to challenge the way in which one’s identity and ability to acquire citizenship is constructed.

Read Full Post »

 As announced in August, the Human Rights in Ireland blog will host a performance on 10 December at 6pm in Druid Theatre, Galway to celebrate Human Rights Day. The event is called 'Whoop it up for Liberty!' - an ironic quote from Connolly's Reconquest of Ireland. As part of the performance, actors, local people and community activists will read aloud from texts commemorating key moments in Irish history which relate to the theme of human rights. The performance will feature first person narratives which highlight the experiences of workers, women, people with disabilities, travellers, language rights activists, asylum seekers, children, prisoners and many others as they relate to human rights in Ireland – from historical perspectives right through to the present day. Thomas Conway, literary manager of Druid Theatre, will direct the performance, which will be followed by a question and answer session where the texts and themes will be further discussed.
 

Since this is a not-for-profit event, we are seeking support to cover our production costs. The director and actors involved are generously volunteering their time, and in order to do justice to the inspiring texts used to create the script, we would like to make this as professional an event as possible. The event has been listed as a creative venture on Fund It to secure crowd source funding for the performance. This link will take you to the Fund It page for the event where you can watch a video clip of some of the actors involved reading from a draft script - and we would appreciate if readers of the blog could repost the link via social media. Donations received will go towards the cost of hiring the venue and rehearsal space, lighting and sound, recording the performance, providing catering for the cast and crew after the performance, producing programme notes for the event, and making the performance accessible to all.

 

This will be the first time an event of this kind has been performed in Ireland, using first-person narratives to explore historical and present-day experiences of human rights across a broad range of issues: identity, belonging, democracy, politics, solidarity, and exclusion. We hope that people will contribute what they can to make the event a success – and we hope to see as many of you as possible on 10th December in Galway!

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 »