The Irish government don't want you to know about

national | rights, freedoms and repression | press release

Monday December 07, 2009 12:24

by Amnesty Ireland - Amnesty International

commassistant at amnesty dot ie

The Irish government can be taken to the UN for failing to deliver social, economic and political rights it guarantees to all its citizens.

Twenty years ago, on 8 December 2009, the Irish Government ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). They refuse to re-ratify it, and have failed to deliver on it for the past twenty years.

The Irish government's best kept secret...

Twenty years ago tomorrow the Irish Government ratified a legally binding international treaty guaranteeing everyone living in Ireland fundamental human rights. Amnesty International Ireland today described the treaty as “one of the country’s best kept secrets” and launched an online campaign encouraging people to take action in support of their human rights.

“When the Irish Government ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1989 we were guaranteed rights to health, housing, education, an adequate standard of living and more, but the vast majority of Irish people have never heard of it,” said Amnesty International Ireland Executive Director Colm O’Gorman.

Amnesty International Ireland has launched a new website, www.amnesty.ie/secret, and contacted over 10,000 people online asking for their help to spread the word about the treaty the Irish Government doesn’t want you to read.

“It’s one of Ireland’s best kept secrets that each of us has these rights and that successive governments have had a duty to deliver them,” continued Mr O’Gorman. “Later this week the budget will be published, we know some tough choices have to be made but the Government has a legal obligation to deliver on these human rights and the evidence so far shows it’s falling short.

“We’re supposed to have a right to free primary education but 74 per cent of parents are asked for a contribution to their school’s running costs every year.

“We’re supposed to have a right to housing but four and a half thousand people are homeless at any one time, about a thousand of whom are children.

“We’re supposed to have a right to health but hundreds of children are detained in adult mental health facilities because there is not enough child appropriate accommodation.

A new protocol to the treaty was recently agreed that would allow people living in Ireland to take the Government to the United Nations if it was failing to work to deliver these rights. Thirty countries, including Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and Argentina have signed it. Ireland has not.

“People can only demand their rights from the Government if they know they exist,” said Mr O’Gorman.

“We’ll be asking everyone who logs on to www.amnesty.ie/secret to email the Taoiseach and call on him to sign up to the new protocol. Ireland says a lot about human rights on the world stage, it’s time to stand up for human rights in Ireland.”