Shadow Reporting and the Role of NGOs
When a state such as Ireland ratifies an international human rights treaty, this involves undertaking an obligation to submit periodic reports to the body which monitors the implementation of the treaty in order to report on progress made in improving respect for the rights provided for under that treaty. A state will be invited by the treaty body to an oral hearing on a cycle of usually around 3-5 years. In advance of this hearing the state will submit its periodic report to the Committee’s secretariat.
The treaty body may then invite non-governmental organisations to submit their independent shadow reports. For NGOs, this is a key opportunity to voice their human rights concerns and criticisms at an international level. The purpose of shadow reports is to supplement, or “shadow” a Government’s report to an international human rights body. A shadow report is designed to ensure that a human rights body, such as the UN Human Rights Committee, does not rely solely on a Government’s account of how it is meeting the terms of an international human rights instrument, but has full access to the observations, claims and concerns of human rights defenders and other groups independent of Government.
Our ICCPR Shadow Report is the product of over a year’s research and consultation with the Irish NGO community by FLAC, ICCL and IPRT. The report has been endorsed by 15 other Irish NGOs.
This close collaboration and endorsement demonstrates the determination of Ireland’s NGO sector in working together to promote Ireland’s compliance with international human rights standards.
The review of Ireland took place from 14-15 July 2008 in Palais Wilson (seat of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights) in Geneva. A high-level government delegation of fifteen, including the Attorney General and the Secretary-General of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform were in attendance. A large team of civil society groups also attended the review in order to make a presentation to the Committee before the review and to lobby individual Committee members. The Committee praised the NGO presentation and Shadow Report as a model of best practice.
About three weeks after the review, the treaty body adopted its concluding observations on Ireland’s compliance with the ICCPR.
FLAC, the ICCL and the IPRT are hosting a conference on April 6 2009 in order to devise the next steps to be taken in order to ensure that the process does not end and that the implementation of the concluding observations is not ignored.
NGO endorsement list:
Those NGOs in bold in this list attended with FLAC, ICCL and IPRT at the ‘Morning NGO session’ in Geneva in July 2008.
Please note that not all views expressed in our Shadow Report and in this website necessarily reflect the policies and positions of each endorsing NGO.
Age Action
AkiDwA - African Women’s Network
European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN)
Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN)
Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI)
Integrating Ireland
Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA)
Irish Refugee Council (IRC)
MarriagEquality Campaign
Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland (MRCI)
National Traveller Women’s Forum
One Family
OPEN - Representing Lone Parents in Ireland
Pavee Point
Rape Crisis Network of Ireland (RCNI)
Educational and religious endorsement list
Please note that not all views expressed in our Shadow Report and in this website necessarily reflect the policies and positions of each endorsing organisation.
Centre for Criminal Justice and Human Rights, Faculty of Law and Business, University College Cork
Dominican Justice Office
Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway
UCD School of Social Justice