Human Rights in Ireland

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 »

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:

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Amnesty International and the Centre for Disability Law & Policy (NUI Galway) will run a seminar entitled “Getting it Right: Capacity Legislation and the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities” on 30 November 2011 from 9am – 1pm at the Alexander Hotel, Fenian Street, Dublin 2.  This seminar will explore how Irish legislation can reflect the changes Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).  Article 12 of the CRPD requires a fundamental change in thinking about legal capacity and repeal of laws that restricts or denies legal capacity.  Person sharing their personal experiences of having their legal capacity called into question will address the conference.  The seminar will also be addressed by leading international legal experts Christine Gordon (speaking about the British Columbia model) and Oliver Lewis (MDAC). This seminar is timely as the Government moves towards the publication of a bill to replace the outdated Ward of Court System.  For more information see here.

 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!

The cuts agenda in the UK continues to cast a particularly deep shadow over Northern Ireland. The gleaming edifice of the Titanic Quarter (pictured left) in Belfast bears witness to the scale of public spending in Northern Ireland. Nonetheless, the 15-year and £7 billion development project remains, in an irresistible pun, the tip of a public-spending iceberg. As Henry McDonald flagged-up this week, public spending in Northern Ireland continues to outstrip levels in the remainder of the UK: Read Full Post »

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: Read Full Post »

“commends the State party for establishing independent monitoring mechanisms in full compliance with art. 33.2 of the Convention.” (my emphasis)

‘States Parties shall, in accordance with their legal and administrative systems, maintain, strengthen, designate or establish within the State Party, a framework, including one or more independent mechanisms, as appropriate, to promote, protect and monitor implementation of the present Convention. When designating or establishing such a mechanism, States Parties shall take into account the principles relating to the status and functioning of national institutions for protection and promotion of human rights.’