Ireland’s minister for overseas aid is to lobby African government ministers for support for a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC).

THE Department of Social Protection is facing a growing number of legal challenges from families denied child benefit because of the habitual residence condition.

THE treatment of returning Irish emigrants who are being denied welfare payments due to the misapplication of a social welfare rule is “unjust and ironic”, an agency which has worked with emigrants since the 1950s has said.

IN response to Minister O’Cuiv’s letter (August 2), what should be happening (as he describes) is not the reality of what is happening.

I AM responding to your editorial and associated articles in relation to carers in your July 29 edition.

I WRITE with reference to your excellent coverage of the hardship being endured by returning Irish immigrants applying for social welfare (July 29), many of whom are falling foul of the habitual residence condition” (HRC).

WHEN Penny Fennessy’s elderly father suffered a stroke she gave up her life in England and moved to the small town of Clogheen in Tipperary to care for him.

AN Irish citizen who left Ireland to find work and was told on her return that she was no longer eligible for welfare payments is still waiting to receive the financial support six months later.

Honda look unlikely to to quit MotoGP following the Japanese manufacturer’s withdrawal from Formula One.

The massive influence of the drinks industry on the Government is directly linked to dozens of suicides, an official report claimed today.

MIGRANT workers claiming more than €90 million a year in child benefits for dependents living in other EU countries have been subjected to an anti-fraud crackdown.

THE HUMAN Rights Commission (HRC) has begun a preliminary investigation into brutal operations carried out on Irish women by religious run maternity hospitals in the 1950s to 1980s.

The Irish Human Rights Commission is undertaking its first reshuffle since being set up in 2001.

The North's Human Rights Commission has expressed renewed concern about the planned use of Taser guns by the PSNI.

THE Government is denying people who are detained against their will in mental institutions their rights, according to the State’s official human rights watchdog.

THE Garda Síochána is in a crisis in terms of its human rights record and will need to be “purged” by the Garda Ombudsman, the head of the State’s human rights watchdog said yesterday.

The Human Rights Commission has added its voice to calls for the Irish Constitution to be made more gender-balanced.

IRELAND’S new anti-terror laws carry a “significant risk” of breaching individual human rights, the State’s human rights watchdog has said.

Cormac O’Keeffe reports on new laws that could threaten our democracy in their very attempt to protect it.

GOVERNMENT policies are exposing asylum seekers to isolation and ghetto-isation, the State’s official human rights watchdog said yesterday.

IT SAYS a lot when the country’s Human Rights Commission (HRC) is worried about Justice Minister Michael McDowell’s daft idea about recruiting wannabe gardaí.

JUSTICE MINISTER Michael McDowell plans to have 1,400 volunteer reserve gardaí in place by the end of the decade.

THE Human Rights Commission is to examine a dossier from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties concerning the behaviour of gardaí at the recent May Day clashes with protesters at Phoenix Park.

THE Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) is preparing a dossier for the Human Rights Commission (HRC) in relation to the Garda’s handling of the May Day protest at Phoenix Park, Dublin.

The Human Rights Commission has written to the Department of Justice warning of the dangers of holding a referendum on citizenship rights.

It was inevitable that the recent atrocities perpetrated in Madrid would result in a review of security and a general tightening up of anti-terrorist measures across Europe.

THE State’s human rights watchdog has expressed extreme concern at legislation to be enacted later this year which could see anti-war and anti-globalisation protestors defined as ‘terrorists’.

A EUROPEAN human rights body has more powers to enter garda stations than the new Garda Ombudsman, a State-appointed watchdog said yesterday.

GOVERNMENTS should have a limited role in setting the terms of reference of investigation commissions, according to the State’s human rights watchdog.

The Human Rights Commission (HRC) has expressed concern about new powers that the Government is planning to grant to gardaí.

PROPOSED legislation giving gardaí extensive new powers could be in breach of European and international law, according to the State-appointed human rights watchdog.

LAST night’s Prime Time investigation again emphasised the need for a powerful and independent body to investigate complaints against gardaí.

THE proposed new garda inspectorate will not significantly improve the current failed complaints procedures, a top legal expert said yesterday.

A lack of resources, and defects in the structure of the Garda Síochána Complaints Board underline the need for a radical overhaul of the current system for dealing with complaints about the force by the general public.

GOVERNMENT proposals for a garda inspectorate could “seriously undermine” the effectiveness of the institution, according to the State’s official human rights watchdog.

The North's Human Rights Commission has written to the Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police asking him to publish his report into the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane in full.

THE new garda complaints body should be given full powers of arrest and detention when probing alleged criminal behaviour within the force, the fledgling Human Rights Commission said yesterday.