8th Amendment Archives - Irish Council for Civil Liberties

ICCL calls for immediate legislation for safe zones around abortion clinics

Dublin, 8 January 2019

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) today welcomed the announcement by Minister for Health Simon Harris that he intends to legislate for safe zones around abortion provision centres and called for him to move to enact such legislation immediately.

Speaking today, ICCL Executive Director Liam Herrick said:

“ICCL attaches great importance to the right to peaceful protest. However, the right to protest is not absolute and does not include a right to intimidate, harass or prevent women from accessing health care, including abortion services. Recent protests at health clinics appear to have been targetting women with the intention of deterring them from accessing health services.

The Irish government is obliged by international treaties to which we are party, as well as by our own Constitution, to protect the right to privacy. It is also obliged to protect access to healthcare and to ensure that healthcare professionals working in these settings have the right to work in a safe environment.”

Under human rights law, the right to protest may only be interfered with in specific circumstances, including in order to protect the rights and freedoms of others. Protecting the right to access healthcare and the right to privacy can be considered legitimate grounds for interfering with the right to protest, as long as the measures taken are necessary, proportionate and provided for by law.

Existing provisions in Irish law for responding to protestors using intimidation and harassment do not provide adequate protection for individuals seeking to access abortion services because they rely on the discretionary use of powers by Gardaí.

Mr. Herrick continued:

“Where there is evidence of a pattern of orchestrated and organised interference with individual rights, such as the right to access healthcare, general measures to protect individual patients and healthcare workers may be necessary. The creation of exclusion zones that prohibit such behaviour within a specified area around healthcare premises would help to fulfil individuals’ right to privacy and right to access healthcare. ICCL looks forward to the publication of legislation in this area, and we will examine it carefully to ensure that any proposal provides a proportionate balancing of rights.”

The use of such exclusion zones has been found in other jurisdictions to constitute a proportionate and necessary interference with the right to protest. Máiréad Enright of Lawyers for Choice has provided a detailed analysis of the legality of exclusion zones and how they might be provided for in Irish law here: https://lawyers4choice.ie/2019/01/05/a-note-on-exclusion-zones-rogue-crisis-pregnancy-agencies-possibilities-for-reform/

ENDS/

Notes for editors:

The right to protest plays a crucial role in democracy and can be a significant driver of positive social change. The right derives chiefly from the right to freedom of assembly and the right to freedom of expression. It involves the exercise of a range of other rights including the right to take part in the conduct of public affairs, the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion and the right to participation in cultural life. As such, the right to protest attracts significant legal protection under the Irish Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights (EHCR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, (ICCPR), to which Ireland is a State Party.

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) requires States Parties (which includes Ireland) to fully realize the right to health. Access to health services forms one of the pillars of the right to health. The UN Treaty Body charged with interpreting the ICESCR has held that “health facilities, goods and services must be within safe physical reach for all sections of the population, especially vulnerable or marginalized groups”. The government is therefore required to prevent third parties from hindering access to healthcare.

The right to privacy and confidentiality is one of the personal rights protected by the Irish Constitution, and is explicitly protected under the ECHR and the ICCPR. The government must ensure that third parties do not interfere with the right to privacy of individuals when accessing health care services.

Under existing Irish law, protestors who are considered to be breaching the public peace without lawful authority or reasonable excuse or to be causing harassment, alarm or distress may be restricted. The Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994 gives the Gardai a broad power to ‘move on’ individuals when there is reasonable concern for the maintenance of the public peace. A person commits an offence if he or she, without lawful authority or reasonable excuse, willfully prevents or interrupts the free passage of any person in any public place. The Gardai can also potentially use powers under The Criminal Justice Act 2006 to issue a behaviour warning in response to behaviour which causes or is likely to cause harassment, significant or persistent alarm, distress, fear or intimidation. The fact that the Act applies to behaviour “likely to” cause alarm etc. means that there need not be an actual victim.

For media queries:

Sinéad Nolan: sinead.nolan@iccl.ie 087 4157162

ICCL welcomes Amnesty result; calls on Government to amend unclear law

Dublin, 31 July 2018

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) today welcomes the outcome of the legal challenge taken by Amnesty International Ireland against the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPOC). SIPOC has agreed to fully retract its demand for Amnesty to return a grant that Amnesty received in 2015, years before a Referendum on the 8^th Amendment was called, from the Open Society Foundation for work on reproductive rights.

Director of ICCL, Liam Herrick, said:

The regulator has many questions to answer, particularly on how it deals with civil society organisations who are not political parties, and how it processes complaints from the public. It is clear that this case came about because of a complaint from an individual who did not agree with Amnesty’s work on reproductive rights. Amnesty have been fully vindicated by this outcome, but the reputational damage which they, and the entire human rights sector, have suffered as a result of this flawed decision is profound. That this should have occurred in advance of a highly contested referendum demonstrates the seriousness of this issue for how we regulate democratic participation.

ICCL believes this case demonstrates emphatically that laws intended to regulate undue foreign influence on election campaigning cannot be applied to the more general advocacy work of civil society. On the global stage Ireland takes a lead on the issue of protecting civil society space, with our diplomats at the UN recently gathering the necessary support for a Human Rights Council resolution on the issue and Irish Aid actively providing foreign funding to civil society organisations in other countries. There is a glaring contradiction between this strong principled position and the retention of domestic laws which have the effect of stifling civil society at home.

This is not the only case of its type. Over the past year, ICCL and our colleague organisations have been made aware of several similar cases where small voluntary and community organisations have been the subject of complaints to SIPOC, with often severe effects on their work. We raised our concerns on this matter with SIPOC in August 2017 but did not receive an answer. We subsequently raised the issue with the Department of Housing and Local Government and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, both of whom adopted a stance supportive of our position. In fact, we were assured by the Tanaiste Simon Coveney that “A key priority for Ireland is to ensure coherence between the promotion and protection of human rights in our foreign policy and our domestic implementation of our international human rights obligations.”

Mr Herrick stated:

This case shows that the law is unworkable and must be changed. ICCL has formed a coalition of organisations who are committed to working with Government to find a better solution for everyone. We are today calling on SIPOC to immediately review its application of the Electoral Act to civil society organisations. We further call on the government to act with urgency in reviewing this deeply flawed legislation.

ENDS/

Sign the petition for reform here: https://action.uplift.ie/campaigns/284

Notes for Editors:

More information on the Electoral Act: https://www.iccl.ie/human-rights/civil-society-space/reform-electoral-act/

https://www.iccl.ie/human-rights/civil-society/opinion-allow-foreign-donations-support-activities-irish-civil-society-organisations/

ICCL celebrates Historic Vote for Women’s Rights

Dublin, 26 May 2018

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) today warmly welcomed the overwhelming referendum vote to repeal Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution (the Eighth Amendment). Liam Herrick, executive director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), said:

“This resounding and emphatic vote by the Irish people to repeal the 8th Amendment is an historic victory for women’s rights. This vote demonstrates that Ireland in 2018 is a more caring and compassionate society that recognises the harm and terrible injustice that has been caused by this constitutional provision. Ireland will now be able for the first time to introduce nuanced legislation which can address the full complexity of pregnancy in a manner compatible with the rights and dignity of Irish women.”

Mr Herrick was speaking as news rolled in of a yes majority in the referendum to repeal the 8th Amendment. The ICCL campaigned against the insertion of the 8th into the Constitution in 1983, is a member of the Coalition to the Repeal the Eighth and Together For Yes and has been running a human rights-based campaign for its repeal since March. Paying tribute to those who had fought for this result over the past 35 years, Liam Herrick said:

“This referendum result was won through the leadership of a powerful grassroots movement which fought hard to secure a referendum vote over many years, and which evolved into an effective and focused Together For Yes political campaign over the past few months. ICCL is especially proud of the role our members have played in fighting against this referendum since 1983 – including our founder Mary Robinson and our former Board members Ivana Bacik and Ailbhe Smyth.

Most of all this vote is the victory of the courageous women who put their personal stories before the Irish people at great personal cost. It was the sharing of their lives and their suffering that convinced the Irish people that change was necessary and urgent.”

However, Mr. Herrick also cautioned against thinking that repeal of the 8th was the end point of the journey, highlighting that it is rather a staging point in the ongoing struggle for equality. Mr. Herrick continued:

“We must also remember that women in Ireland face many other obstacles to full equality – including physical and sexual violence inside and outside the home; the gender pay gap, and underlying societal assumptions about women’s bodily autonomy. We only need to look to two very recent murders of young women for this to become all too apparent”.

ICCL also recognises that this referendum campaign has disclosed wider issues about our political and democratic process, including restrictions on freedom of expression, the need for greater transparency regarding campaign financing, and a wider lack of clarity regarding how elections should be regulated in the digital age. In the coming months, ICCL will call for a wider review of how Ireland addresses these complex issues and we intend to work with civil society partners to call for a review of the existing law in this area.

ICCL convenes 1983 Anti-Amendment campaigners for ‘Under the 8th’ event

Dublin, 23 May 2018

Former Supreme Court judge Catherine McGuinness, Senator Ivana Bacik, and editor of Hot Press magazine Niall Stokes were amongst speakers at an event organised by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) which brought together people who campaigned against the insertion of the Eighth Amendment into the Constitution in 1983 and which took place at Dublin’s Smock Alley Theatre last night.

Speaking at the event, Justice McGuinness said:

“In 1983 the Eighth Amendment was devised by a small group, with the backing of the Church, who convinced the main parties to adopt a legal measure that many of the leading lawyers of the time could see would bring great hardship and uncertainty. The amendment was voted into the Constitution in a febrile environment. This was the era of the Kerry Babies and the death of Ann Lovett, and the 1983 referendum was part of the terrible hypocrisy that accompanied those tragedies. Sadly, we continue to observe this hypocrisy from commentators on the no side who directly opposed the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act in 2013 and who now laud it as a panacea to all difficulties which a pregnant woman may face. However, I believe that the Irish people have now seen through the hypocrisy of the Eighth and they will vote on Friday to take back responsibility for abortion and women’s rights in pregnancy.”

Ms. Bacik said:

“A Yes vote on 25 ^th May is vital because our legal experience over 35 years of the 8th Amendment is that there is no other way we can legally provide for terminations of pregnancy on grounds of fatal foetal abnormality; or on grounds of rape or incest; or even where a pregnancy poses a serious risk to a woman’s health. It is long past time that we removed the absolute constitutional prohibition on reform, and allowed our democratically elected legislators to introduce an appropriate legal framework for the regulation of lawful termination of pregnancy.”

Mr Stokes said:

“The only way to free the women of Ireland from this draconian, insulting paternalism is to Repeal the 8^th Amendment. The only way to end a situation where sourcing an abortion pill carries the threat of 14 years in prison is to repeal the 8^th Amendment. That, I believe, is what good, kind, caring, compassionate people will want to do, and will do, on Friday next.”

Director of the ICCL Liam Herrick said:

“It’s remarkable now to look back at the Anti-Amendment campaign and to realise the prescience of those involved. They claimed that it would do nothing to provide support to women in crisis pregnancies, that it would not eradicate abortion in Ireland, that it would endanger the lives and health of women, and that it could actually kill women. Over the 35 intervening years, those predictions have all come to pass. Unless it is repealed, the Eighth Amendment will continue to cast its long shadow over the lives of women and girls in Ireland.”

Legal experts Catherine Forde BL and Máiréad Enright as well as campaigner Pauline Conroy all spoke about individual cases, watershed moments and the shadow the Eighth has cast over women and girls’ lives for the past thirty-five years. A multimedia exhibition, Women to Blame, which was curated by Therese Caherty and Pauline Conroy, showcased 40 years of struggle for contraception and reproductive rights. Excerpts from Aisling Malone’s new documentary This Is Ireland were shown alongside clips from the archives, including a TV debate between William Binchy and former president Mary Robinson.

ICCL unveils mural calling for Repeal of the 8th Amendment

Dublin, 18 May 2018

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) today unveiled a campaign mural calling for a YES vote in the forthcoming referendum at Bang Bang café in Phibsborough. ICCL commissioned street artist and graphic designer Giant Sigh to create a mural, which draws on images of feminist workers’ icon Rosie the Riveter and Yeats’ and Lady Gregory’s cultural representation of Ireland Cathleen Ní Houlihán to highlight the importance of women’s rights and equality in today’s Ireland.

Orla O’Connor of NWCI and Together for Yes with ICCL’s Liam Herrick, poet Paula Meehan, Project Arts Centre’s Cian O’Brien and artist Gearóid Seoighe, aka Giant Sigh

The mural unveiling comes as ICCL released a statement this morning on the increased importance of political and artistic freedom of expression in referendum contexts. The statement was circulated widely in the arts community.

A number of speakers discussed the recent censorship of artists such as Grace Dyas, Una Mullally and Maser. Liam Herrick, director of the ICCL, said: “We’ve been gravely concerned that artists are being prevented from exhibiting art during the pre-Referendum period because their art concerns women’s experiences of abortion and has therefore been deemed too “political” to be allowed. We have analysed court judgements such as McKenna and McCrystal in the light of European Court of Human Rights judgements and, in our view, it is imperative that the government facilitate, rather than shut down, artistic and political expression even when it does come down on one side of the debate”.

Cian O’Brien of Project Arts Centre said: “I’m delighted that the ICCL are engaging with this vital issue which goes to the very core of our society and constitution. Art by its very nature, is indelibly political because it relates to the workings of the society from which it emerges. Project Arts Centre has always placed the vision and freedom of expression of the artist at the centre of our work. We firmly believe there is immeasurable value in creating space for artists and artworks that not only reflect our society, but also directly address and challenge its issues and complexities head on.”

Orla O’Connor of NWCI and Together for Yes with poet Paula Meehan and artist Giant Sigh

Poet Paula Meehan of the Artists’ Campaign to Repeal the 8^th Amendment said: “The artist’s role in the culture is to question, to probe, to articulate what is silenced, to make manifest what is hidden, to reflect the full complexity of the human condition. The painting over of Maser’s mural on the wall of the Project is emblematic of a fear culture. Irish people know that attempting to bury what we find disturbing brings only heartbreak and shame. There is a relationship between the words timid and intimidation; the growing intimidation of venue management and curators bodes ill for the long-term health of the arts in Ireland and has a resonance far beyond the issue of Repeal. Self censorship is as bad for society as active oppression. We must send a clear signal of resistance and stand together for our rights as artists to make manifest the work we need to make in the context of this referendum and for the future.”

Orla O’Connor of NWCI and Together for Yes with poet Paula Meehan and artist Giant Sigh

Orla O’Connor of Together for Yes wrapped up the event, saying “There are 7 days to go to the vote. It’s time to take a stand and provide care and compassion for women in ireland. Abortion is a reality in Ireland when over 3,000 women travel to the UK and over 3 women per day take abortion pills. The decision that faces us on the 25th May, is do we want another century where women and couples have to endure extreme stress and trauma or do we want regulated, safe abortion where decisions are made between between a woman and her doctor.

A representative of the SUBSET artistic collective spoke about their Grey Area Project and the crowd gathered also heard poetry from spoken word artist Lewis Kenny.

Artist Gearóid Seoighe AKA Giant Sigh with ICCL comms officer Sinéad Nolan in front of ICCL mural 'Rosaleen the Repealer'

Artist Gearóid Seoighe with ICCL comms officer Sinéad Nolan and ICCL mural ‘Rosaleen the Repealer’