Next week the Irish Government will answer to an important UN body on its Civil & Political Rights record. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) was adopted by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 1966 and includes an extensive list of rights, including: the right to life; freedom from torture and inhuman treatment; the right to liberty and security; the right for detained persons to be treated with humanity and the right to a fair trial.

Government will be questioned and pressed on its past record and its future plans to:

Introduce legislation to recognise same-sex partnerships and other non-married relationships, as well as to allow transgender persons to change their gender officially;

Address concerns about the use of Irish airspace and airports for so-called “renditions”. The HRC wants to know if the State will continue to accept diplomatic assurances in this regard, and if it intends to carry out a public inquiry into renditions and

End overcrowding and “slopping out” in Irish prisons and repeal measures allowing imprisonment of civil debtors.

To detail measures which have been put in place since the 2002 referendum on abortion to protect women from continuing with a pregnancy where it impacts negatively on her right to life

To explain how proposals in the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill to arrest, detain and remove a person who is unlawfully present in the State without notice is compatible with the State’s human rights obligations.

For more see

http://rightsmonitor.org/

So what do you think of the Irish Government's Civil & Political Rights Record?

Ireland has submitted two previous reports and to be honest in was quite shameful. The concluding observations of the HRC were pretty much identical in both regards. The only improvement was Garda accountablilty with the establishment of the Garda Ombudsman. The Irish government (as do many others) of going to Geneva shuffling through their lines and ignoring the suggestions of the HRC. However it must be remembered that Ireland is not reliant on the ICCPR for the protection of these rights as we are bound by the ECHR which is a very good, flexible and clear human rights convention. It would be nice if the Irish government took the HRC, the ICCPR and the reporting proceedure more seriously but for practical human rights enforcement the ECHR is sufficent.

I'd prefer if our Oireachtas made these decisions, rather than being chided by an unelected kleptocracy at the UN.

I'd prefer if our Oireachtas made these decisions, rather than being chided by an unelected kleptocracy at the UN

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A prime example of the miscomprehension of just what this process is about.

These conventions are VOLUNTARY. The Irish governements decided to enter them and they did not have to do so. These conventions were born of a global desire to avoid the horrific events of WW2 and other human rights atrocities and to make a global declairation of such goals.

The UN declairations are not binding. They are seen as a broad statement of aspirations and goals that a country would like to achieve. Governments do not have to accept the entire document they may make reservations to certain articles. This provides for a huge degree of autonomy. The reporting process is a way of a country looking at itself and seeing has it achieved these goals that it aspired to and if not what has to be done. The HRC is comprised of top practicioners and acedemics who in their concluding observation give praise, assistance and advice to governments. It only has a moral force as no country wants to be shown to be denying human righs to any of the people in its jurisdiction.

The ECHR is different as its binding. But again the Irish government signed up to it on its own accord. There are various protocols to it (this is the same for UN conventions) that the government may or may not sign up to. The ECHR is only binding due to the ECHR Act 2003 which may be repealed by a simple act of the Oireachtas.

The reason why we have these declairations is to provide assistance to governments. Nobody is made sign up if they dont want to. The Oireachtas signed up to these conventions therefore in essence these rights did come from the Oireachtas. It is much easier in practical terms to use conventions than to make up your own. That and they guarantee protection from governements who may not see certain rights as a priority or do not believe they exist at all.

I personally dont understand why people have to knock a system such as the ECHR which does work just because it was not soley born of an act of the Oireachtas, but was created with Irish and Internation cooperation.

Also lets not forget that the ECHR can be used State v State. This was used sucessfully by Ireland against the Uk for the degrading and inhumane treatment of prisoners during the troubles.

This is an attempt by left wing political groupings to have their agenda implemented without having to convince the general public of the validity of their arguments. OK so we voluntarily engage with these people, whoever they are, we can therefore voluntarily tell them that real human rights include the right to life of unborn children and the right of children to be brought up in normal stable homes.

Just a quick note to say

right to life of unborn: Right to an abortion is provided in neither of these convetions

right to be brought up in a stable home: define what exactly is suppose to be a stable home and how would this be enforced?

They are: ECHR: Judges one from each country party to the convention, Judge of country sits on cases concerning country
ICCPR: HRC which can only issue recommendations which the government are free to (and tend to) ignore. Made up of top level acedemics and human rights practicioners. Independant.

Lift wing accusations: Interestingly these conventions have been critised for being too right and not left enough as they tend to focus on indiviual rights (eg right to vote, right to free expression) rather than so called left rights (right to education, right to healthcare. These are contained in the ICESCR, the twin con to the ICCPR

Originally Posted by pro-choice

Next week the Irish Government will answer to an important UN body on its Civil & Political Rights record. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) was adopted by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 1966 and includes an extensive list of rights, including: the right to life; freedom from torture and inhuman treatment; the right to liberty and security; the right for detained persons to be treated with humanity and the right to a fair trial.
So what do you think of the Irish Government's Civil & Political Rights Record?

Our record is light years ahead of most members of the so called..ahem..imortnat UN? I wonder how many members of the OIC signed up to this? How many members of ASEAN. The sooner this sordid talking shop is gotten rid of and replaced with somehting else the better.

Our record is light years ahead of most members of the so called..ahem..imortnat UN?

Just because some countries have worse records of human rights abuse does not mean that Ireland should not be called up on our record. We have many problems still left and we have policies that still treat some of our citizens like there are the second class. This is a system by which our attention can be brought to these issues, give NGOs the oppurtunity to have their views heard and for the government to do a self audit of its policies. The HRC is just there is aid not to enforce. Ireland is far from perfect and far from treating the people in its jurisdiction to the full levels that governements have promissed.