The European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) has appointed the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and University College Dublin (UCD) School of Social Justice as the FRA’s new RAXEN National Focal Point on racism, xenophobia, islamophobia and anti-Semitism in Ireland.
The ICCL/UCD consortium will be assisted by a panel of the country’s top academic experts, as well as by the Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI), which has been subcontracted to develop the communications work of the RAXEN National Focal Point.
RAXEN National Focal Points are the FRA’s recognised national coordinators, contracted to manage an information network including government departments, research bodies, statutory human rights and equality bodies, NGOs and social partners. Based on information gathered through this network, the ICCL / UCD consortium will provide regular reports to the FRA on racism and related forms of intolerance in Ireland.
Speaking shortly after signing the RAXEN contract with the FRA’s Director, Morten Kjaerum, ICCL Director Mr Mark Kelly said:
“The Irish Council for Civil Liberties greatly welcomes the decision of the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency to place this critical monitoring function in genuinely independent hands. Racism is a mutating virus which, if unmonitored, can easily breed and spread. Keeping the Fundamental Rights Agency closely informed about developments in Ireland will maintain an international spotlight on emerging forms of intolerance which might otherwise prosper unchecked”.
Professor Kathleen Lynch, Chair of Equality Studies at the School of Social Justice in UCD added:
“The UCD School of Social Justice welcomes the opportunity to work with ICCL in the independent, research-based monitoring of racism in Ireland. We will endeavour to use our research expertise, and that of our academic partners in UCC, UL and the School of Sociology, UCD, to enhance ways of informing the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) of all forms of racism and xenophobia with a view to creating a truly inclusive and equal society in Ireland.”
ENDS.
For more information, please contact:
Walter Jayawardene
Campaigns & Communications Officer
Irish Council for Civil Liberties
9-13 Blackhall Place
Dublin 7
Ireland
Mob: +353 87 9981574
E-mail walter.jayawardene@iccl.ie
Web www.iccl.ie
Notes to editors:
The contract to act as the EU Fundamental Rights Agency’s RAXEN National Focal Point in Ireland was awarded to the ICCL / UCD consortium after an open and competitive tendering process. The RAXEN National Focal Point function was previously performed by the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) which closed at the end of 2008, after the Government withdrew its funding.
The consortium will be assisted by panel of experts including Ursula Barry, Director of the Women’s Studies Programme at UCD; Dr Steven Loyal, Senior Lecturer in the School of Sociology at UCD; Dr Siobhán Mullaly, Co-Director of the Centre for Criminal Justice, University College Cork and Professor Dermot Walsh, Director of the Centre for Criminal Justice, University of Limerick.
The consortium has sub-contracted the Immigrant Council of Ireland to develop the communications aspects of the work of the RAXEN National Focal Point.
Further information about RAXEN National Focal Points can be found on the website of the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency at: http://www.fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/research/raxen/nfp/nfp_en.htm