ICCL Statement,4.30pm, Dublin, 20 November 2012
Ireland’s human rights watchdog, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has reacted to this afternoon’s confirmation by Taoiseach Enda Kenny that the three Galway-based hospital consultants on the HSE’s Savita inquiry team will be replaced by experts from outside the hospital.
Speaking shortly after the Taoiseach addressed the Dáil this afternoon (20 November 2012), ICCL Director Mr Mark Kelly said:
“The Government has now recognised that it was highly inappropriate that consultants from University Hospital Galway be included in the Savita Halappanavar inquiry team. They should never have been included in the first place. The fact remains, however, that this is still not the independent inquiry into the facts and circumstances of his wife’s death to which Praveen Halappanavar is entitled. Although headed by an external chair, this remains an internal HSE investigation into the conduct of persons employed by the HSE.”
“The HSE is completely at liberty to conduct an internal review of procedures at University Hospital Galway, but an inquiry under the auspices of the HSE will not be sufficient to discharge the Government’s procedural obligation under the European Convention on Human Rights to carry out a fully-independent effective inquiry into the facts and circumstances of Savita Halappanavar’s death. Nor should it be the case, as some political figures have suggested, that the members of the HSE internal inquiry should be allowed to determine whether any further inquiries are required”, Mr Kelly added.
ENDS
For more information, please contact:
Irish Council for Civil Liberties
9-13 Blackhall Place
Dublin 7
Ireland
Tel. + 353 1 799 4504