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| Formation | 30 June 1976 |
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| Founder | |
| Type | NGO |
| Headquarters | Dublin, Ireland |
Chairperson | Dr Muiris O'Ceidigh |
Executive director | Liam Herrick |
| Website | http://www.iccl.ie |
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (Irish : An Chomhairle um Chearta Daonna) is an Irish non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting the civil liberties and human rights of people in Ireland.
Founded on 30 June 1976 by future President Mary Robinson, Kader Asmal and others. [1] Their primary role is in campaigning for civil rights as well as networking with other civil rights groups both nationally and internationally.
During the divorce campaign of the 1980s and 1990s, the ICCL was among others who established the Divorce Action Group which campaigned to support the legalisation of divorce which had previously been prohibited in the Constitution. In 1995, this was successfully passed.
The ICCL are a member organisation of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH).
The ICCL has repeatedly sought the abolition of the Special Criminal Court, and in 2009 opposed its expansion from a narrow focus on state security-related trials to also include organised crime. [2]
In October 2011, the ICCL said the information provided to voters in advance of polling in two constitutional referendums on the Twenty-ninth Amendment and Thirtieth Amendment was "tardy and inadequate". [3] and advocated a 'no' vote on the proposed Thirtieth Amendment. [4] The Thirtieth Amendment was subsequently rejected by 116,000 votes. [5]
In January 2020, the ICCL criticised management at CBS Kilkenny for attempting to implement facial recognition technology to record and process the biometric data of children and staff in the school. The implementation was postponed as a result. [6]
In May 2020 ICCL suggested that Gardaí using spit hood during the COVID-19 pandemic might be "inhumane and degrading". [7]
THE ICCL has expressed support for the curbing of hate speech in Ireland, but called for definitions of "hate" and "incitement", to "ensure we are protecting against only the most extreme forms of hate speech", so as not to place undue limitations on freedom of expression. The ICCL also called for the freedom of expression defence in the legislation to be strengthened, observing the precedence set by European courts which stresses that while content may be shocking or offensive, it is not necessarily hateful. [8]
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.
The Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Act 2004 amended the Constitution of Ireland to limit the constitutional right to Irish citizenship of individuals born on the island of Ireland to the children of at least one Irish citizen and the children of at least one parent who is, at the time of the birth, entitled to Irish citizenship. It was approved by referendum on 11 June 2004 and signed into law on 24 June of the same year. It affected in part changes made to the Constitution by the Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland which was passed as part of the Good Friday Agreement.
The Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution Act 1995 is an amendment of the Constitution of Ireland which removed the constitutional prohibition on divorce, and allowed for the dissolution of a marriage provided specified conditions were satisfied. It was approved by referendum on 24 November 1995 and signed into law on 17 June 1996.
Alan Joseph Shatter is an Irish lawyer, author and former Fine Gael politician who served as Minister for Justice and Equality and Minister for Defence from 2011 to 2014. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin South constituency from 1981 to 2002 and from 2007 to 2016.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in the Republic of Ireland are regarded as some of the most progressive in Europe and the world. Ireland is notable for its transformation from a country holding overwhelmingly conservative attitudes toward LGBT issues, in part due to the opposition by the Roman Catholic Church, to one holding overwhelmingly liberal views in the space of a generation. In May 2015, Ireland became the first country to legalise same-sex marriage on a national level by popular vote. The New York Times declared that the result put Ireland at the "vanguard of social change". Since July 2015, transgender people in Ireland can self-declare their gender for the purpose of updating passports, driving licences, obtaining new birth certificates, and getting married. Both male and female expressions of homosexuality were decriminalised in 1993, and most forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation are now outlawed. Ireland also forbids incitement to hatred based on sexual orientation. Article 41 of the Constitution of Ireland explicitly protects the right to marriage irrespective of sex.
Three referendums were held in Ireland on 25 November 1992, the same day as the 1992 general election. Each was on a proposed amendment of the Irish constitution relating to the law on abortion. They were enumerated as the Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. The proposed Twelfth Amendment was rejected by voters while both the Thirteenth and Fourteenth were approved.
Founded in 1963, the charter of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties is to protect the rights and liberties of Australian citizens and to oppose the abusive or excessive exercise of power by the state against its people.
Bodily integrity is the inviolability of the physical body and emphasizes the importance of personal autonomy, self-ownership, and self-determination of human beings over their own bodies. In the field of human rights, violation of the bodily integrity of another is regarded as an unethical infringement, intrusive, and possibly criminal.
Two constitutional referendums were held simultaneously in Ireland on 27 October 2011, each on a proposed amendment of the Constitution of Ireland. The proposed amendments are on judicial salaries pay cuts, and to provide additional powers to Oireachtas committees.
The Thirtieth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2011 was a proposed amendment to the Constitution of Ireland to provide for the Houses of the Oireachtas to conduct full inquiries. The bill was passed by both houses of the Oireachtas, but rejected at a referendum held on 27 October 2011.
Equality Alabama (EA) is a statewide non-profit civil rights organization that advocates for the rights of LGBTQ people in Alabama.
The Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution Act 2015 amended the Constitution of Ireland to permit marriage to be contracted by two persons without distinction as to their sex. Prior to the enactment, the Constitution was assumed to contain an implicit prohibition on same-sex marriage in the Republic of Ireland. It was approved at a referendum on 22 May 2015 by 62% of voters on a turnout of 61%. This was the first time that a state legalised same-sex marriage through a popular vote. Two legal challenges regarding the conduct of the referendum were dismissed on 30 July by the Court of Appeal, and the bill was signed into law by the President of Ireland on 29 August. An amendment to the Marriage Act 2015 provided for marriages permitted by the new constitutional status. The act came into force on 16 November 2015; the first same-sex marriage ceremony was held on 17 November 2015.
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.
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.
The Thirty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution is an amendment to the constitution of Ireland which removed the constitution's requirement to criminalise "publication or utterance of blasphemous matter". The amendment was effected by an act of the Oireachtas — the Thirty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Act 2018, which was introduced in Dáil Éireann, passed by the Dáil and Seanad, approved by the people in a referendum, before it was signed into law by the president.
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.
The Thirty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland is an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland which altered the provisions regulating divorce. It removed the constitutional requirement for a defined period of separation before a Court may grant a dissolution of marriage, and eased restrictions on the recognition of foreign divorces. The amendment was effected by an act of the Oireachtas, the Thirty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution Act 2019.
Hate speech is public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation. Hate speech is "usually thought to include communications of animosity or disparagement of an individual or a group on account of a group characteristic such as race, colour, national origin, sex, disability, religion, or sexual orientation".
Divorce Action Group was an Irish organisation campaigning for the legalisation of divorce in Ireland. The group was one of the main advocators for divorce in the 1986 and 1995 divorce referendums.
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