L-R ICCL Human Rights Film Awards Jury members Brian Gleeson, Nicky Phelan (Brown Bag Films), Conor McPherson and Lenny Abrahamson

A Jury comprising some of Ireland’s leading filmmaking, screenwriting and acting talent met today (Wednesday 4 June 2014) to announce the shortlist of six outstanding short film entries to the 2014 Irish Council for Civil Liberties Human Rights Film Awards.

The cream of international entries to Ireland’s only human rights-themed short film competition was announced at a photocall today in Dublin’s Smithfield by Awards Jury members, including Frank director Lenny Abrahamson, playwright and screenwriter Conor McPherson (I Went Down, The Actors, The Eclipse) and Love/Hate’s Brian Gleeson.

The shortlist consists of six hard-hitting documentaries that combine filmmaking with international human rights activism. Issues explored include homelessness, the arts and their impact on health, immigration, holocaust survivors, the land/food crisis in Guatamala and the plight of Syrian refugees.

The films are now available to view on the Awards website HERE. The ICCL will host a star-studded Gala screening of the six shortlisted films on 26 June 2014 in Dublin’s Light House Cinema.

We have smashed our ICCL Human Rights Film Awards Fund It target with your help!

Thank you to all our named and anonymous funders, and to all of those who sent cheques and called the office to pledge, an enormous THANK YOU! We’re so grateful for your support of the ICCL Human Rights Film Awards and for giving us the resources we need to run the project.

A very special thank you to Jean Herlihy & all at Brown Bag Films for running a cake sale to support our Fundit campaign, and to Brown Bag Films for matching what they raised – amazing!

We’re simply overwhelmed by the support, positive feedback & kind words we’ve received about this project and our Fundit campaign. Thank you!

For more information on the soon-to-be-announced shortlist for the 2014 ICCL Human Rights Film Awards ,and our Gala screening in June, visit the Awards website for updates: http://www.humanrightsfilmawards.org/.

**Read our submission to the Committee via the reader above or at the link below.**

Tomorrow morning, Wednesday 14 May 2014, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality will conduct oral hearings as part of its review the effectiveness of legislation relating to the oversight of the Garda Síochána (the Garda Act 2005). 

The ICCL will address the committee during the hearings’ morning session, during which it will outline its views on a number of gaps in the oversight of policing in Ireland, which were not adequately addressed by the Garda Act 2005, and which have been further brought to light by the recent series of Garda-related controversies. The ICCL will further outline some key measures required to ensure that Ireland’s police accountability and oversight structures are fit for purpose.

The ICCL’s address will draw upon its formal submission to the Committee in April of this year, as well as Implementing Morris, its major 2006 study on the aftermath of the Morris Tribunal, the recommendations of which remain unimplemented. 

The ICCL’s Submission can be downloaded from our website HERE or via our ISSUU e-reader account HERE.

The ICCL’s 2006 study Implementing Morris: An Agenda for Change – Putting Human Rights at The Core of Policing in Ireland can be downloaded HERE

The Committee hearings may be viewed online on the Oireachtas website at http://www.oireachtas.ie/parliament/watchlisten/