Ireland under fire over human rights of children
Amnesty International claimed the Government is not protecting children or women being trafficked to Ireland for sex, with laws criminalising victims instead of supporting them.
In its annual report for 2007, the organisation said state-run or funded residential facilities for children in care and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children lacked an inspection system.
It also stated 300 children with intellectual disabilities are inappropriately placed in adult inpatient mental health units, adding the establishment of an independent inspectorate for residential care facilities for adults with intellectual disabilities was delayed.
Noeleen Hartigan, of the Amnesty International Irish Section, said the treatment of these youngsters was in direct contravention of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
“You have a human right to have the highest attainable standard of mental health,” she said.
“That’s not being clearly upheld for people with mental health difficulties in Ireland and it’s one of the first steps we feel the Government should address.”
Ms Hartigan said concerns were highlighted in relation to human rights infringements in Ireland, in particular how the country is one of the few in Europe not to have trafficking legislation.
“Women and girls who are discovered to be trafficked, rather than being offered counselling or support, they are actually being criminalised,” she said.
“It’s quite a damming indictment of where we are at as a country, that we would allow this situation to continue, and that Irish people are using the services of women and young people.
“The Irish Government did recently sign a UN convention on action againsttrafficking, but we are slow to catch on to how serious it is. We need legislation.”
It is estimated two million people are trafficked around the world every year.
“If the people are in that situation and being raped on a daily basis try and get any of the people who are effectively their clients to speak up for them, that’s not going to happen,” continued Ms Hartigan.
“If they try and go to the gardaí they are here without papers and without legislation. We need to protect these women and children, they are in an extremely difficult situation. It is the worst form of migrant workers.”
Other key issues highlighted by Amnesty was the use of Ireland for rendition flights by the US armed forces, and the establishment of the new Garda Ombudsman Commission.
Ms Hartigan said although the office was welcomed, the country still needed an independent police investigation force that’s not within political control.
The report focused on the judicial inquiry into the April 2000 fatal shooting of John Carthy by gardaí, the Morris Tribunal, and the death of Terence Wheelock in custody which remains under investigation by the Coroner’s Court.
Amnesty also investigated the killing of prisoner Gary Douch while in custody in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, in August.
“There was concern about the absence of a statutory mechanism for independent and effective investigations into prison-related complaints, including deaths in custody,” the report stated.
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