The UN made available a press release on the weekend in which preliminary observations on Ireland’s examination last week by the Human Rights Committee were laid out as follows:

Preliminary Concluding Observations

RAFAEL RIVAS POSADA, Chairperson of the Human Rights Committee, in preliminary concluding observations, highlighted that a number of points and concerns raised by the committee were still pending responses and, as promised by the head of the delegation, would be supplemented and provided in writing at a later date. The Committee would continue to follow step-by-step the human rights situation in Ireland.

Committee Experts had raised a number of questions and concerns on what articles and rights in the Covenant were covered by domestic legislation in Ireland, Mr. Rivas Posada noted. There was an indirect system of referring to the Covenant and the articles covered in the Covenant. Reference had been made to the language used in the famous Article 41 of the Constitution, which was in direct opposition to the Covenant. It seemed that there was still remnants of the traditional culture in Ireland, which played down the role of women in society and such Constitutional articles might be a symptom of that.

Mr. Rivas Posada observed that Ireland considered that a state of emergency existed in Ireland and as such validated the existence and continued emergence of special courts. That had left doubts within the Committee as to what extent the State party could clearly uphold the established standards in the articles of the Covenant.

On the subject of abortion and education a number of doubts and concerns remained, Mr. Rivas Posada continued. Also, whereas Ireland had made efforts to expand freedom of religion and expression, nonetheless, concerns remained in regard to freedom of children and women which had influenced policies leading to equality and freedom of religion. Lastly, on the issue of imprisonment for civil debt, the delegation had repeatedly explained that the phenomenon did not exist. Nonetheless, it was an obligation imposed by the judge and if not upheld under civil contempt charges an individual might go to prison. That explanation was not convincing to the Committee and that provision was in direct violation of Article 14 of the Covenant which prohibited imprisonment for debt.

Download the full text of the press release in our Resource Download Library under ‘UN Materials’. The Irish Government’s supplementary responses, mentioned above, were issued to the Human Rights Committee on Friday 18 July 2008 and can also be downloaded in our Resource Download Library under ‘Government Materials’.