The full programme is now available for the ICCL/ FLAC/ IPRT conference Implementing Human Rights in a Time of Change: Facing Up to Challenges under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), taking place on 6 April 2009 in the Radisson Hotel, Golden Lane, Dublin 8. Please click here to download in PDF format.

Next Monday (6 April 2009) a panel of top UN human rights experts will visit Dublin to highlight the Government’s responsibility to protect the rights of the poorest and most vulnerable people in Ireland.

Speaking on the eve of budget day, UN Human Rights Committee members Judge Elizabeth Palm and Professor Michael O’Flaherty will discuss the international standards set out in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the importance of their implementation.

The conference, Implementing Human Rights in a Time of Change: Facing Up to Challenges under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) has been organised by the three leading human rights organisations: FLAC (Free Legal Advice Centres), Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT), which last summer presented a “shadow report” to the UN Human Rights Committee detailing Ireland’s implementation of its international human rights obligations.

The shadow report and the UN’s own report have highlighted gaps in the protection of the vulnerable which the Government failed to close during the Celtic Tiger years. For example, the law in Ireland continues, in effect, to permit the imposition of a term of imprisonment for failure to pay a civil debt; Irish prisons remain overcrowded and unhygienic; and measures combating domestic violence and protecting its victims remain inadequate. A series of UN human rights recommendations for Ireland produced last summer, which the Government has yet to implement in full, mirrored many of the shadow report’s findings. In this harsher economic climate, positive action will be required to ensure that those left behind by the boom are not abandoned altogether.

This conference will provide a very timely opportunity to take stock of the Government’s responsibilities towards the most vulnerable people in Ireland. Implementing Human Rights in a Time of Change will take place from 10:00am on Monday 6 April in the Radisson Hotel, Golden Lane, Dublin 8.

The final conference programme is available to download HERE.

A photocall and interviews with participants for press and broadcast media will take place in advance of the conference from 9:30 am in the Radisson hotel lobby.

For all press enquiries, and to arrange interviews with conference participants and ICCL, IPRT and FLAC representatives please see our contacts page.