19 October 2021
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has said the Government’s proposals to extend and expand the Covid Pass system give rise to serious human rights and equality concerns. The organisation says government needs to make several amendments to the system in order to proceed in a manner that complies with human rights law.
ICCL Executive Director Liam Herrick said:
“The Government has not produced evidence that would justify the extension or expansion of the system outside hospitality settings. It should do so. If it proposes to extend what was meant to be a temporary system, government should also provide for a negative test as a means for people who are not vaccinated to enter premises covered by the indoor regulations.”
“Across the EU, testing is available as an alternative to vaccination or recovery for Covid-19 certs. This is explicitly to avoid discrimination against people who can’t or won’t be vaccinated. In the context of not allowing testing, proposals to extend the range of areas where certs will be required is deeply discriminatory.”
By law, whenever Government introduces legislation that affects rights it must carry out a test of necessity and proportionality. It must show evidence that the measure introduced is necessary to achieve a particular aim. To that end, Government has yet to produce evidence to show that the vaccine passport system has curbed the transmission of Covid-19 to date, or shown what specific benefit the system is intended to have over coming months.
At ICCL, we are conscious that even those of us who are fully vaccinated may carry and spread this disease unknowingly. In cases where people are heading to large events and are not feeling ill, but still may transmit the virus, testing would provide much greater protection from the disease for those around them.
In addition, ICCL is unaware of the Government having carried out any equality or human rights impact assessment prior to the roll-out of this system. It’s equally unclear if the government is currently monitoring the impact of the certificate system within Ireland on everyone’s rights.
ICCL is particularly concerned for the 70,000 people who received their first vaccination but did not receive their second. Anecdotally, we understand some of these people cannot receive a second jab for medical reasons. This group and others with medical impediments to vaccination should receive special consideration. We would emphasise the usefulness of introducing a test-based system for this cohort.
Liam Herrick ICCL Executive Director continued:
“ICCL is a pro-vaccine organisation. We supported the roll-out of the vaccination programme, and we are a member of The People’s Vaccine campaign group which is calling for global vaccine equity. At the same time, we respect everyone’s right to bodily integrity and privacy in relation to their health. We believe vaccination, and all medical treatment, should be a choice. A voluntary approach has been hugely successful in Ireland and ICCL believes any move to coerce vaccination at this time would be divisive and potentially counterproductive.
We went into this pandemic together. Let’s come out of it together.”
ENDS/
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) is Ireland’s oldest independent human rights campaigning organisation. We monitor, educate and campaign to secure human rights for everyone in Ireland.
For comment: Liam Herrick or Olga Cronin
For media queries: sinead.nolan@iccl.ie