Wednesday, December 10th, 2008
PRESS RELEASE:
On International Human Rights Day (10 December 2008), the Equality & Rights Alliance (ERA) has highlighted the Government’s “double standards” on human rights and equality.
A delegation of the Alliance, the coalition representing 71 civil society organisations, appeared before the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Law Reform at 2.15 p.m. today.
Speaking on behalf of ERA, Mark Kelly (Director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties) emphasised that Ireland had been one of the sponsors of a recent United Nations General Assembly resolution calling upon Governments to strengthen national human rights institutions (UN Document A/c.3/63/L.23, 30 October 2008).
“It seems that, while attempting to burnish its human rights reputation abroad, and lecture others on their human rights performance, the Government is intent on dismantling our human rights institutions at home. If budget cuts of 43% to the Equality Authority and 24% to the Irish Human Rights Commission go ahead, neither of these bodies will be able to run a viable programme of activities in 2009″ he said.
“This would appear to be a concerted attempt to muzzle bodies that were created to hold the Government to account, and is clear evidence of double standards where the implementation of human rights and equality is concerned. We are calling on politicians of principle from all political parties to resist these moves”, Mr Kelly added.
The ERA delegation also called upon the Oireachtas to restore human rights as an express charitable purpose in the Charities Bill currently before the Seanad.
Ironically, the Alliance’s appearance before the Oireachtas comes on International Human Rights Day (which, this year, is also the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 10th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders).
Do the Rights Thing!
Equality and Rights Alliance asks politicians of principle from all political parties to call for the Government to:
• allow the Public Service Review Group to assess publicly and objectively the finances, staff performances and services provided by The Equality Authority and the Irish Human Rights Commission.
• reverse the budget cuts until the Review Group has completed its work.
• put the brakes on the decentralization of The Equality Authority until the Review Group has completed its work.
• make the Equality Authority and the Irish Human Rights Commission directly accountable to the Oireachtas and fully independent from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, as required by international law.
• include human rights as an express charitable purpose in the Charities Bill.
Tags: Human Rights and Equality, Press Release
Posted in Releases
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008
Equality & Rights Alliance
Protecting Equality and Human Rights
www.eracampaign.org
Photocall Notification
For release: November 11, 2008
Dermot - Call time on Attacks on Equality and Human Rights
Dermot Ahern T.D., Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform will be in his bed, to be awakened by a giant alarm clock at a photocall this Thursday, November 13th at 11 a.m. outside Dáil Eireann (Kildare Street Gate).
The alarm clock will ask him to CALL TIME on the Budget Attacks on Equality and Human Rights.
The Minister will be before the Dáil for questioning later that day. Opposition spokespeople will ask the Minister to outline his reasoning for cutting the budgets of The Equality Authority and the Irish Human Rights Commission by 43% and 24% respectively. In addition, the Equality Authority is being fast-tracked to Roscrea at a time when decentralization has been halted for most. This action is completely disproportionate to the budget outcome for other agencies within the Justice Department.
The photocall is being organized by Equality & Rights Alliance, a coalition of 65 civil society organizations representing 2.5 million people including older people, people with disabilities, women, immigrants, gay and lesbian people, Travellers and many others.
Equality & Rights Alliance has also started a 9 day email campaign to all TDs and Senators running up to the day the Finance Bill is presented in the Dail on November 20th. The 9 day campaign represents the 9 grounds for discrimination.
Members of Equality & Rights Alliance will be outside the Dáil to help WAKE UP the Minister.
You are invited to attend this photocall
For more information contact:
Edel Hackett - Tel: 087-2935207
DERMOT - CALL TIME
What: Dermot Ahern T.D. in bed with a giant alarm clock
Where: Dáil Eireann, Kildare Street gate
When: Thursday, November 13, 2009 at 11 a.m.
Who: Equality & Rights Alliance - coalition of 65 civil society organisations
Tags: Dermot Ahern
Posted in Releases
Wednesday, October 15th, 2008
Equality & Rights Alliance (ERA) today (15 October) revealed that some of its members have been invited to participate in a value for money review of the Equality Authority. However, the Government has slashed the agency’s budget by a massive 43% before the review is even complete.
The cuts to the equality and rights bodies are up to 21 times harsher than cuts to other bodies within the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.
The budget of the Irish Human Rights Commission was also been reduced by nearly a quarter (24%). Joanna McMinn, Chair of ERA said that the cuts, which effectively render the agencies inoperable, were a calculated and overt form of censorship.
McMinn will speak this evening at an event to commemorate civil rights in Ireland since the civil rights marches of 1968.
Consultants Deloitte Touche, at the behest of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, state the review is to “analyse what has been achieved by the provision of public funding to the Equality Authority; and to determine whether the Equality Authority is meeting the Departments and Government current and future requirements in an economic and effective manner.”
“The fact that the Government has pre-empted the review and disregarded the opinions of those who work with older people, lone parents, low-paid workers and people with disabilities, questions the sincerity of the Government’s promises to protect the most vulnerable and to seek rationalization based on specific and uniform criteria,” McMinn said.
“Make no mistake about it. This is a deliberate and overt targeting of agencies which have done nothing but a good job in tackling ongoing social and institutional inequalities and discrimination in Ireland. It is unacceptable that an economic down turn can be the front for culling bodies which continue to question the unequal underbelly of post Celtic Tiger Ireland.”
She said that Equality & Rights Alliance, which formed to oppose the merger of equality and rights bodies, would continue to campaign against the deliberate shafting.
For more information contact: Edel Hackett, Tel: 087-2935207
Eight Broken Promises to the Vulnerable
- A Response to the Deliberate Targeting of Equality and Rights Bodies
The Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan T.D. spoke about protecting the vulnerable no less than eight times in his budget speech. Here are eight ways in which the Government has made a mockery of that rhetoric by deliberately targeting and decimating the very agencies put in place to champion equality and human rights for the most vulnerable
- It slashed the budget of the Equality Authority by 43% bringing it from an already under resourced position of €5.89m to €3.3m. This effectively means that it has lost all its non-pay budget and cannot carry out its key functions.
- The Government is fast-tracking the decentralization of the Equality Authority to Roscrea when decentralization has been effectively halted. Fifteen staff will be moved within a few weeks but none have applied for Roscrea. This will throw the agency into further chaos.
- The role of an equality and rights architecture must, by necessity, sometimes be critical of the State’s relationship with its citizens. The sign of a mature democracy is when this criticism can be taken on board, not used as vehicle for threat or silence. Silence does not serve the vulnerable well.
- The halving of the Equality Authority’s budget has been announced in advance of a Value for Money Review being carried out by Deloitte Consulting.
- The Irish Human Rights Commission budget has been reduced by nearly a quarter, bringing it from €2.09m to €1.59m. This completely undermines the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement. The Northern Ireland body has a budget of €1.8m to service a population of 1.75 million. The IHRC now has far less to service a population of 4.5 million. How can mandates remain equivalent, as set out under the Agreement, with such disparity in funding?
- The overall equality budget of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform has been slashed by 30%.
- The equality budget cuts have hit women and particularly the country’s most vulnerable women, including victims of violence, hardest. COSC, the national office for the prevention of domestic, sexual and gender based violence has been cut by 18%. Gender mainstreaming and positive action for women, including the national women’s strategy has been cut by 45%.
- The message the Government is sending is that equality and rights can be shafted. This message is lost on women who are afraid to tell their bosses they are pregnant, people with disabilities who cannot access buildings, older people who can’t get a car loan, or gay and lesbian couples who are asked to leave hotels, for example.
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Tags: Budget, Equality Authority
Posted in News, Releases
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