Robinson takes State to task on human rights

FORMER UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson yesterday criticised the Government’s failure to make human rights part of Irish constitutional law, 52 years after we signed up to an international convention.

Ireland is one of the few countries that has not incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into domestic law, even though we signed this convention in 1950. Mrs Robinson, who is heading up a new international human rights body, said she was concerned it was taking so long: “It raises questions about the commitment to strengthen the protection of human rights here, particularly the rights to health, housing and education.”

One of the key requirements of the Good Friday Agreement was that there would be equal human rights provisions in Britain and Ireland, with both countries setting up their own Human Rights Commission.

While Britain has already enshrined the ECHR into their domestic law and set up a Human Rights Commission, progress on both these issues has been very slow here. Four years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, the Human Rights Commission has just been set up here and legislation will come on stream next year, giving further effect to the ECHR. However, this new legislation will not go far enough to force the courts to implement the human rights outlined in the European convention, according to Amnesty International. This is because the convention will not be enshrined in our constitution.

Mrs Robinson said the Government had informed the UN that it did not intend to integrate the European convention into Irish law, even though it had committed itself externally to upholding human rights.

But a Department of Justice spokesman last night said when the new law is passed it will give further effect to the convention on human rights and organisations like the Garda Síochána and local authorities will have to take into account the ECHR rules.

The Joint Oireachtas Constitution Review Group was against putting the ECHR into the Constitution, the Justice Department spokesman said. The Government felt human rights were best protected under Irish law as it stood. “Some rights like a right to a trial by jury could be eroded because a lot of European countries do not have this right,” he said.