Human rights in Ireland

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Human rights in Ireland are protected under the Irish Constitution and European provisions. Since 2014 the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has overseen human rights in the republic. Human rights issues in the country that have raised concern include abortion rights, child abuse, and human trafficking.

Contents

In Northern Ireland, the Good Friday Agreement (1998) contains guarantees of human rights underwritten by both the British and Irish governments.

Statutory protection

According to the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, human rights in Ireland are contained under and protected by, "the Irish Constitution, the European Convention of Human Rights Act 2004-2014 and where EU law is applicable, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights". [1] The commission also states that although Irish law is bound to international law in its ratification of human rights, "it only gives effect to the provisions of that treaty in domestic law through Acts of the Oireachtas, or where a treaty right is already provided for under the Irish Constitution." [1] The commission also outlines that the responsibility for determining human rights violations lies with Ireland's national courts.

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission is an independent public body, "established under the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014," to, "protect and promote human rights and equality in Ireland and build a culture of respect for human rights, equality and intercultural understanding in the State." [2] The findings of the commission were presented, in the form of a 68-page report, to the UN Human Rights Committee, in Geneva, in July 2017, by chief commissioner Emily Logan. According to Logan, the commission found that, "significant gaps in human rights protection remain," including; human trafficking, abortion legislation, disability and discrimination, the protection and reunification of refugee families, and the conditions of detention.

The commission stands as a government body that ensures that all public bodies in Ireland respect and protect the human rights of Irish citizens. This responsibility is outlined in section 42 of the Irish Human Rights Act, which states that it was, "established a positive duty on public sector bodies to: eliminate discrimination, promote equality of opportunity and treatment, protect human rights." [3]

Rights in Ireland: 1972 to 1998

The Troubles

The Troubles, a guerilla conflict in Northern Ireland fought predominantly between the sectarian groups, the nationalist Irish Republican Army (IRA), and the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). The IRA fought against the discrimination of Northern Ireland's Catholic Minority by Protestants, and for Irish nationalism separate from the United Kingdom. [4]

Bloody Sunday: 30 January 1972

On 30 January 1972, in the Northern Irish city of Derry, 30 000 people gathered to march in  a peaceful protest against the policy internment of IRA volunteers. The march turned violent, with British Soldiers and other local security forces opened fire on the crowd, killing 13 civilians. According to Attorney Lynn Wartchow, Northern Irish and British security forces were often preemptively violent in response to Catholic demonstrations, "the State did not trust that such opposition could be peaceful given that it came from the same community that bred the increasingly violent IRA." [5]

The event became known in Irish history as, "Bloody Sunday," and Wartchow points out that although the massacre violated the right to life under Irish law, British troops were cleared of wrongdoing. [5] Bloody Sunday saw the escalation of the sectarian violence within the troubles, and was seen as indicative of the Northern Irish and British governments oppression and suppression of the civil rights of the Catholic minority. According to Wartchow "after Bloody Sunday, the Catholic population felt cornered into accepting an oppressive and discriminatory ruling government with little, if any, legitimate recourse before the law." [5]

The troubles primarily brought to attention the division that existed between Protestants and Catholics regarding their human rights; namely the right to be outspoken and protest about the plight of Northern Irish Catholics without the threat of violent suppression. [6]

The Good Friday Agreement

"Vote Yes, It's the way Ahead" A sign for the, "Yes", campaign in the ratification of the Belfast Agreement Referendum Troubled Images Exhibition, Belfast, August 2010 (42).JPG
"Vote Yes, It's the way Ahead" A sign for the, "Yes", campaign in the ratification of the Belfast Agreement Referendum

The Good Friday Agreement, or the Belfast Agreement, was an accord that brought an end to the 30-year sectarian conflict. The agreement was signed on 10 April 1998, by the British Government, the Irish Government, and the political parties of Northern Ireland, and was ratified after a referendum in May 1998. The Agreement established a commitment from all signatories to equality and the protection of the human rights of all Northern Irish citizens. [7]

Child abuse in Ireland

Sexual abuse within the Catholic Church

Since the late 1980s, allegations of sexual abuse against children within the Catholic Church in Ireland have been consistently emerging. In 2011, the allegations resulted in the church delivering six reports, implicating 85 Irish priests in sexual abuse from 1975 to 2011. [8] The reports were conducted by the Catholic Church's National Board for Safeguarding Children. Despite the 85 allegations, the report found that only six Irish priests had been convicted of sexual abuse in the thirty-six-year period. [8]

The 'Grace' case

The 'Grace' case came to light in Ireland in 2017, as a major indicator of Ireland's ongoing issues with child sexual abuse. 'Grace,' was born with intellectual disabilities and from 1989 to 2009 she was placed in the Irish foster care system. Grace remained with the same foster family for those twenty years and was subjected to physical abuse, gross neglect and, possibly, sexual abuse. The revelations of Grace's abuse resulted in the publication of two reports, and the establishment of a Commission of investigation. [9] According to an article published by Irish new service, RTÉ, Grace's story of abuse and neglect brings attention to the lack of framework implemented by the Irish government to prevent children from institutionalised abuse. [10]

The Louise O'Keeffe case

The, "Louise O'Keeffe case," investigated allegations of abuse by a woman named Louise, who was abused as an eight year old in 1973, and along with 21 others, mounted allegations of abuse against Leo Hickey, the former principal of the Dunderrow National School, a primary school in Ireland. [11] It was alleged that Leo Hickey abused these women on 400 occasions whilst he was principal of the school in the 1970s. The case was ruled on by the European Court of Human Rights and found that Irish state was liable, and that the case was indicative of the government's failure to take preventative action against sexual abuse in its schools. However, the state denied responsibility for the abuse. [12] Leo Hickey was ordered to serve a three-year jail sentence as, despite the 400 allegations he only plead guilty to 21 charges. [13]

Human trafficking in Ireland

In 2015, the US State department stated that Ireland was a destination country for human trafficking, including sex trafficking and forced labour. Whilst the Department's report still categorised Ireland as a Tier 1 nation, meaning that the country's efforts to eliminate the issue were found to comply the minimum standards of the US, it was further noted that whilst Irish law enforcement efficiently investigated human trafficking offences, often the traffickers were not convicted. [14]

In 2018, Ireland was downgraded, in the United States’ Trafficking of Persons Report 2018, from Tier 1 to Tier 2; Tier 2 including countries that fall below US standards in combatting human trafficking. The report found that, regarding the efforts of the Irish government, "The government has not obtained a trafficking conviction since the law was amended, in 2013; it initiated only three prosecutions in 2017 and had chronic deficiencies in victim-identification and referral." [15] The number of newly identified cases in 2017 numbered 115, an increase on the 90 cases identified in 2015. [16] According to the report, this increase can be accounted for by the Irish governments, "decreased," [16] law enforcement efforts. Whilst the report did note that Ireland's, Garda Síochána, (police force), runs a dedicated email service involved with reporting trafficking, action was taken on a mere 31 emails, a number disproportionate when compared with the number of cases published by the report. [16] The report further found that the Irish government provided, "no legally mandated psychological assistance to victims," and had dedicated little effort to, "reduce the demand for sex trafficking or forced labour." [15]

The nationality of Trafficking victims in Ireland identified in 2017, according to the report, included, "28 Irish, 14 individuals from Romania, 12 from Indonesia, 12 from Nigeria, and the rest from Europe, Africa, South Asia, the Near East, and South America." [15] Furthermore, it was reported that, "Victims of forced labour have been identified in domestic work, the restaurant industry, waste-management, fishing, seasonal agriculture and car-washing services." The report indicates that forced labour, especially, was an increasing issue in the country.

Abortion rights in Ireland

The Eighth Amendment

Protestors at a rally in Dublin in response the death of Savita Halappanavar. 2012 Dublin Savita Halappanavar Rally.jpg
Protestors at a rally in Dublin in response the death of Savita Halappanavar. 2012

Abortion in Ireland was illegal under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. This ban was given constitutional footing by the Eighth Amendment, added to the Irish constitution in 1983, which prohibited women from undergoing an abortion unless their lives were at risk. The aim of the amendment was to recognise the rights of an unborn child as equal to those of the pregnant women, and, this entailed that, even in cases of incest, rape and fatal foetal abnormality, Irish women's options were to carry a pregnancy to full term or travel elsewhere to receive an abortion. [17]

The Death Of Savita Halappanavar

Debate regarding the Eighth Amendment had been ongoing since 1983 and was heightened by the case of Savita Halappanavar. Savita died at Galway University Hospital as a result of a septic miscarriage when she was about 17 weeks pregnant. Admitted to the hospital in severe discomfort, she requested an abortion after learning that a miscarriage was inevitable, but it was conditionally denied due to the existence of a fetal heartbeat. Two days later she miscarried and went into a coma. Her condition deteriorated, leading to septic shock, organ failure, and death from cardiac arrest on October 28, 2012, a week after her admittance. The story of Sativa Halappanavar's demise would help to rally support for the repeal of the Eighth Amendment and for the general liberalization of abortion law in Ireland. [18]

Ireland's Abortion Referendum

On Friday 25 May 2018, Irish citizens voted on a referendum to determine whether the Eighth Amendment would be repealed. The Referendum on the Thirty Sixth Amendment, asked Irish citizens to change the law's focus on,"the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother," to become, "Provision may be made by law for the regulation of termination of pregnancy." [19] 3,367,556 Irish citizens participated in the referendum. The votes returned a verdict to repeal the Eighth Amendment, 66.4% to 33.6%. The results of the referendum entailed that the Irish Parliament would begin to legislate and reform abortion laws in the country. The referendum addressed one of the key areas of human rights concern found by The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. [20]

Climate change in Ireland

According to the United Nations Special Rapporteur, Professor David Boyd, Ireland has failed to take more effective measures to control climate change. Boyd referred to these failures as a “breach of Ireland’s human rights obligations,” and stated that the country “must take additional actions on an urgent basis,” as climate change impinges upon the right to life of Irish citizens, “a right which the Government of Ireland is legally obligated to respect, protect and fulfil.” Boyd recommended that the Irish government implement more effective measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, for otherwise ”these violations will expand in terms of geographic scope, severity and the number of people affected". [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constitution of Ireland</span> National democratic constitution

The Constitution of Ireland is the fundamental law of Ireland. It asserts the national sovereignty of the Irish people. It guarantees certain fundamental rights, along with a popularly elected non-executive president, a bicameral parliament, a separation of powers and judicial review.

Public opinion on abortion has changed dramatically in Ireland. Abortion in Ireland is regulated by the Health Act 2018. Abortion is permitted in Ireland during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy, and later in cases where the pregnant woman's life or health is at risk, or in the cases of a fatal foetal abnormality. Abortion services commenced on 1 January 2019, following its legalisation by the aforementioned Act, which became law on 20 December 2018. Previously, the 8th Constitutional Amendment had given the life of the unborn fetus the same value as that of its mother, but the 36th constitutional amendment, approved by referendum in May 2018, replaced this with a clause permitting the Oireachtas (parliament) to legislate for the termination of pregnancies.

Same-sex marriage has been legal in Ireland since 16 November 2015. A referendum on 22 May 2015 amended the Constitution of Ireland to provide that marriage is recognised irrespective of the sex of the partners. The measure was signed into law by the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, as the Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland on 29 August 2015. The Marriage Act 2015, passed by the Oireachtas on 22 October 2015 and signed into law by the Presidential Commission on 29 October 2015, gave legislative effect to the amendment. Same-sex marriages in Ireland began being recognised from 16 November 2015, and the first marriage ceremonies of same-sex couples in Ireland occurred the following day. Ireland was the eighteenth country in the world and the eleventh in Europe to allow same-sex couples to marry nationwide.

The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution Act 1983 was an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland which inserted a subsection recognising "the equal right to life of the pregnant woman and the unborn". Abortion had been subject to criminal penalty in Ireland since at least 1861; the amendment ensured that legislation or judicial interpretation would be restricted to allowing abortion in circumstances where the life of a pregnant woman was at risk. It was approved by referendum on 7 September 1983 and signed into law on 7 October 1983. In 2018, it was repealed by referendum.

Amendments to the Constitution of Ireland are only possible by way of referendum. A proposal to amend the Constitution of Ireland must be initiated as a bill in Dáil Éireann, be passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas (parliament), then submitted to a referendum, and finally signed into law by the president of Ireland. Since the constitution entered into force on 29 December 1937, there have been 32 amendments to the constitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">X Case</span> Irish court case permitting abortion in exceptional circumstances

Attorney General v X [1992] 1 IR 1 was a judgment of the Irish Supreme Court which established the right of Irish women to an abortion if a pregnant woman's life was at risk because of pregnancy, including the risk of suicide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rónán Mullen</span> Irish politician (born 1970)

Rónán Thomas Mullen is an Irish independent senator and former delegate to the Council of Europe. He is the leader of the Human Dignity Alliance, an extra-parliamentary anti-abortion political party formed in 2018. He was elected to the Seanad for the National University constituency in July 2007 and re-elected in 2011, 2016 and 2020. He has topped the poll in every NUI Seanad election from 2011. Mullen is a frequent media commentator on social and political topics. The first National University of Ireland senator appointed to the Council of Europe, he received international coverage for his role in defeating the McCafferty Report which sought to limit the right to conscientious objection for medical staff in the case of abortions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBT rights in Northern Ireland</span>

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Northern Ireland enjoy most of the same rights as non-LGBT people. However, the advancement of LGBT rights has traditionally been slower than the rest of the United Kingdom, with the region having lagged behind England, Scotland, and Wales. Northern Ireland was the last part of the United Kingdom where same-sex sexual activity was decriminalised, the last to implement a blood donation “monogamous no waiting period” policy system for men who have sex with men and, after intervention by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the last to allow same-sex marriage. Compared to the neighbouring Republic of Ireland, all major LGBT rights milestones had been reached earlier in Northern Ireland, with the exception of same-sex marriage. Homosexuality was decriminalised in Northern Ireland a decade earlier and civil partnerships were introduced six years earlier.

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From the late 1980s, allegations of sexual abuse of children associated with Catholic institutions and clerics in several countries started to be the subject of sporadic, isolated reports. In Ireland, beginning in the 1990s, a series of criminal cases and Irish government enquiries established that hundreds of priests had abused thousands of children over decades. Six reports by the former National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church established that six Irish priests had been convicted between 1975 and 2011. This has contributed to the secularisation of Ireland and to the decline in influence of the Catholic Church. Ireland held referendums to legalise same-sex marriage in 2015 and abortion in 2018.

A, B and C v Ireland is a landmark 2010 case of the European Court of Human Rights on the right to privacy under Article 8. The court rejected the argument that article 8 conferred a right to abortion, but found that Ireland had violated the European Convention on Human Rights by failing to provide an accessible and effective procedure by which a woman can have established whether she qualifies for a legal abortion under current Irish law.

The Thirty-first Amendment of the Constitution (Children) Act 2012 amended the Constitution of Ireland by inserting clauses relating to children's rights and the right and duty of the state to take child protection measures. It was passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas (parliament) on 10 October 2012, and approved at a referendum on 10 November 2012, by 58% of voters on a turnout of 33.5%. Its enactment was delayed by a High Court case challenging the conduct of the referendum. The High Court's rejection of the challenge was confirmed by the Supreme Court on 24 April 2015. It was signed into law by the President on 28 April 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Death of Savita Halappanavar</span> Woman who died from sepsis from being denied an abortion in Ireland

Savita Halappanavar was a dentist of Indian origin, living in Ireland, who died from sepsis after her request for an abortion after a prolonged miscarriage was denied on legal grounds. In the wake of a nationwide outcry over her death, Irish voters passed in a landslide the Thirty-Sixth Amendment of the Constitution, which repealed the Eighth Amendment and empowered the Oireachtas parliament to make abortion legal. It did so through the Health Act of 20 December 2018.

The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 was an Act of the Oireachtas which, until 2018, defined the circumstances and processes within which abortion in Ireland could be legally performed. The act gave effect in statutory law to the terms of the Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court in the 1992 judgment in the X Case. That judgment allowed for abortion where pregnancy endangers a woman's life, including through a risk of suicide. The provisions relating to suicide had been the most contentious part of the bill. Having passed both Houses of the Oireachtas in July 2013, it was signed into law on 30 July by Michael D. Higgins, the President of Ireland, and commenced on 1 January 2014. The 2013 Act was repealed by the Health Act 2018, which commenced on 1 January 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland</span> 2015 amendment permitting same-sex marriage

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D v Ireland is a case of the European Court of Human Rights concerning abortion in Ireland. It refers to the court case itself, and the circumstances surrounding abortion for fatal foetal abnormalities in Ireland. In 2002 Deirdre Conroy discovered her pregnancy was non-viable and had a termination in Northern Ireland. A public letter, written using a pseudonym, asking for it to be legal was credited with influencing the 2002 abortion referendum. She lost a court case in the ECHR in 2006 because she had not exhausted all domestic remedies. In 2013 after the death of Savita Halappanavar, she came forward, revealed her identity and again asked for this sort of termination to be legal.

Mellet v Ireland is a finding from the United Nations Human Rights Committee in 2016 that the Republic of Ireland's abortion laws violated human rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by banning abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormality and by forcing her to travel to the United Kingdom for an abortion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland</span> 2018 amendment liberalising abortion laws

The Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland is an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland which permits the Oireachtas to legislate for abortion. The constitution had previously prohibited abortion, unless there was a serious risk to the life of the mother.

Secularism in the Republic of Ireland has been described as a "quiet revolution", comparable to the Quiet Revolution in Quebec. The term "quiet revolution" has been used to encompass a number of significant social and political movements related to secularism and secularization, which have occurred in the late 20th and early 21st century. It has been described as a period where "the people led, and the politicians followed". Since the passing of a 1972 amendment with overwhelming public support, Ireland has had a secular constitution, although a high degree of religious influence over laws, education, and state business still persisted in the decades which followed, diminishing only in more recent times. In an assessment of the Irish state's overall secularity, Humanists International gave Ireland a mixed score, finding "systematic discrimination" against non-religious people in government, education, and society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Northern Ireland Act 2019, colloquially known as the 2019 Northern Ireland Act, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that provided for the extension of the period for forming a Northern Ireland executive until 13 January 2020. The Act also extended the powers of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland during this time whilst imposing several conditions. The Act requires that the Secretary of State report regularly to Parliament, designed to limit the ability of the sovereign to prorogue parliament, as well as providing for the legalisation of same-sex marriage and opposite-sex civil partnership in Northern Ireland and the liberalisation of abortion laws if no executive was formed by midnight on 21 October 2019. After the deadline passed, abortion was decriminalised automatically by repeal of Sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861; in December 2019 the British Government passed regulations legalising same-sex marriage and opposite-sex civil partnerships on 13 January 2020. Further regulations governing abortion came into force on 31 March 2020.

References

  1. 1 2 "Human Rights Law in Ireland". The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  2. ↑ "Who we are". The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
  3. ↑ "What does the law say?". The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  4. ↑ "BBC - History - The Troubles" . Retrieved 8 November 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 Wartchow, Lynn (Spring 2005). "Civil and Human Rights Violations in Northern Ireland: Effects and Shortcomings of the Good Friday Agreement in Guaranteeing Protections". Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights. 3: 4 – via Scholarly Commons.
  6. ↑ "BBC - History - Bloody Sunday" . Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  7. ↑ "BBC - History - The Good Friday Agreement" . Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  8. 1 2 "85 priests were accused of abuse". BBC News. 30 November 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
  9. ↑ "Who is 'Grace' and what happened to her?". The Irish Times. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
  10. ↑ "HSE 'yet to apologise' to whistleblowers in Grace case". RTE.ie. 15 June 2017. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
  11. ↑ O'Mahony, Conor (13 February 2018). "Official Ireland remains in denial about its child abuse legacy". RTE.ie. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
  12. ↑ O'Mahony, Dr Conor. "Column: If the State had done the right thing, Louise O'Keeffe would never have been abused". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
  13. ↑ "Louise O'Keeffe: Victims of abuse in national school continue to be abused by the State". The Irish Times. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
  14. ↑ "Ireland". U.S. Department of State. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
  15. 1 2 3 "Ireland". U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on 25 October 2018. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
  16. 1 2 3 O'Keeffe, Cormac (5 July 2018). "Ireland not doing enough on human trafficking, US report says". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  17. ↑ "Everything you need to know about Ireland's historic abortion referendum". The Independent. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
  18. ↑ "How the death of Savita Halappanavar revolutionised Ireland". The Irish Times. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
  19. ↑ "Referendum on the Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018 |". www.referendum.ie. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
  20. ↑ "Vote to liberalise Ireland's abortion laws leaves Yes campaigners in 'utter shock'". ABC News. 27 May 2018. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
  21. ↑ "Climate change: Ireland failing on 'human rights obligations', says UN". The Irish Times. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
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