In July 2014, Ireland’s fourth periodic report (and response to List of Issues) under the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights will be examined by the UN Human Rights Committee. Civil society and human rights organisations have engaged tirelessly in this process and have produced a shadow report to assist the UN Human Rights Committee(…)
We are pleased to welcome this guest post by Kirsten Roberts, doctoral researcher at The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London. Parliaments can play a vital role in protecting human rights, but their potential is not being realised. Last Friday at the United Nations in Geneva, the results of an 18-month project on Effective(…)
We are pleased to welcome this guest post by Diarmuid Griffin, lecturer in Criminal Law and Criminology at NUI Galway. Ireland has always tended to look to England and Wales when considering reform in the criminal justice arena. However, when it comes to the planned legislative reform of the parole of life sentence prisoners, we should(…)
The report of the Independent Review of Issues Relating to Symphysiotomy is out. So too, at long last, is Prof. Oonagh Walsh’s final Report on Symphysiotomy in Ireland 1944 -1984. If you need a reminder of what symphysiotomy is, and of the human rights abuses which characterised its practice in Ireland, you can see Survivors(…)
The rapid advance of Isis, (The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant/Islamic State in Iraq and Syria or Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham), its renaming of itself as “Islamic State” combined with the declaration of a Caliphate and added to recent statements made by the regional government of Iraqi Kurdistan around its potential future have brought questions as to(…)
We are delighted to welcome this guest post from Ntina Tzouvala who is Deputy Co-Convener of Law and Global Justice and a PhD candidate at Durham Law School. She is currently researching on history and theory of public international law. You can contact her here or follow her on Twitter @ntinatzouvala On the 25th of June the first round of(…)
Today is International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. The 26th of June has been International Day in Support of Victims of Torture since declared so by the UN General Assembly in 1997 by resolution 52/149. The rationale for International Day in Support of Victims of Torture is to promote the total abolition of(…)
On 24 June 2014, I spoke at a seminar The Ethic’s of ‘Home’: Direct Provision, Homelessness and Ireland’s Housing Policies. This seminar, organised by Dr Ronni Greenwood, sought to explore conceptions and meanings of home, in the context of housing and homelessness. My paper, The Rights of Others: Asylum Seekers and Direct Provision in Ireland sought to(…)
Today the Minister for Justice hosted a seminar on garda reform at Farmleigh in Dublin. This comes in the wake of consultations on both the role of GSOC and the commitment to a new police authority. With words of introduction from both the Minister and Acting Commissioner O’Sullivan, formal presentations were given by me and(…)
Human Rights in Ireland welcomes this guest post from Colin Lenihan. Colin is a trainee solicitor for KOD Lyons Solicitors a leading human rights & public interest law firm, who represent asylum seekers and other vulnerable migrants. During Ireland’s last examination by the United Nations Committee Against Torture, in May 2011 the then Secretary General of the Department(…)
