Press release, 31 January 2011
Seventeen leading organisations have joined forces to help people hold the State to account for its human rights record.
Speaking today (31 January 2011) at the launch the “Your Rights. Right Now” campaign, the Director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), Mr Mark Kelly said:
“Right now, many people are seeing very clearly how politics and economics can impact directly on their lives and those of their families. People care about their rights, right now.”
“National and international laws promise to protect the rights of everyone in Ireland but, all too often, those pledges have been broken.”
“This year, we’ll be using a new way to encourage the State to keep its promises: the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR)”, Mr Kelly concluded.
Mr Kelly’s colleague, Rosalind McKenna of Amnesty International Ireland said:
“Amnesty International Ireland is very pleased to be part of the Your Rights. Right Now campaign. For years, we’ve been working with groups on issues like the right to health and the right to housing, which successive Governments have failed to take seriously. The Universal Periodic Review offers a fresh chance to ask people directly about whether their rights are being respected and to bring this information to the UN”.
The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) is also a key player in the campaign and its Disability Rights Officer, Gerard Gallagher, spoke from personal experience about why he is involved:
“When I started college a couple of years ago, I had difficulties finding appropriate accommodation, using public transport and even making friends – in lots of the lecture halls, wheelchair-users are literally segregated from the rest of the class in specially designated parts of the room, which made it really hard for me to mix with my peers.”
“Like most people, I don’t think about my human rights on a daily basis. But I know that I have the right to be treated with dignity and respect, and I have the right to access the same opportunities – in education, in the workplace and in life overall – as everyone else. I would love to live in an Ireland where people with disabilities were a normal part of life – where they weren’t shunned or singled out for special treatment, but were proactively included and treated equally. That’s why I’m involved in this campaign.” Mr Gallagher said.
The launch marks the start of a two-month nationwide campaign, which will include consultations with people around the country. Your Rights. Right Now will produce a report for submission to the United Nations in March 2011. An advertising campaign will begin in the coming weeks, and a new website, www.rightsnow.ie, has also been launched. The website features information about human rights and the UPR, as well as compelling stories from people who have been personally affected by the State’s broken promises on human rights.
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITOR
Under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) the human rights situation of all the countries within the United Nations (UN) are reviewed. This is a new human rights monitoring system of the UN Human Rights Council. It aims at improving the human rights situation on the ground in each of the 192 countries within the UN. Your Rights. Right Now will report to the UN in March 2011, and the UN’s UPR review of Ireland will take place in October 2011.
‘Your Rights. Right Now’ brings together seventeen leading organisations: Amnesty International, the Children’s Rights Alliance, Dóchas, Educate Together, Free Legal Advice Centres (FLAC), the Immigrant Council of Ireland, the Integration Centre, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, the Irish Family Planning Association, the Irish Penal Reform Trust, the Irish Senior Citizens’ Parliament, the Irish Traveller Movement, the National Women’s Council of Ireland, Simon Communities of Ireland, Transgender Equality Network Ireland, and the Union of Students in Ireland.