Mr. David Joyce:

I am pleased to have been invited to speak in the Seanad today, on behalf of the Irish human rights and equality commission designate, on the issue of strengthening co-operation between national human rights institutions and parliaments, and addressing human rights and equality issues, particularly as this arises under Article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. I am joined by the acting chief executive officer of the Irish Human Rights Commission, Mr. Des Hogan. Both of us are happy to take questions, at the appropriate time, following a few short introductory remarks.

The opportunity to speak to the committee is timely as the draft legislation to merge the Irish Human Rights Commission and the Equality Authority into the new Irish human rights and equality commission is before the Houses of the Oireachtas. In our observations on the draft legislation we called for a strong liaison with the Oireachtas to be a concrete feature of the legislation. I shall outline why such a move is important.

The new Irish human rights and equality commission, as the independent statutory body charged with promoting and protecting human rights and equality, is a natural partner for the Oireachtas in supporting the role of Members a legislators. In addition, it can act as a check and balance on the Executive and its power. This derives from a range of functions which we carry out from public engagement, development, education and training, litigation and compliance to our research policy and practice work.

One of our functions is to engage regularly with the Oireachtas by commenting on draft legislation from an equality and human rights perspective and this has been a feature of both the Irish Human Rights Commission and the Equality Authority's work to date.

Currently, the Irish Human Rights Commission is recognised by the UN as Ireland's national human rights institution with "A" status under the UN Paris Principles, bridging the international and national human rights framework recognised by the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the European Union as a key actor. It is important that the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, Bill 2014 and the budget and resourcing that underpins it ensures that the new commission continues to receive this recognition. This is equally so under EU law in so far as the Equality Authority is Ireland's specialised body under EU equality directives.

As the committee may be aware, the Irish Human Rights Commission, as Ireland's national human rights institution, is entitled, and indeed expected, to provide a shadow report under the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights and will appear before the Human Rights Committee in Geneva in July of this year. Our shadow report is not yet finalised and I am speaking today about our structural role rather than about the content of our concerns on the State's compliance, although we can address some of those questions, if necessary, in the question and answer session.

The committee will be aware that in 2008 Ireland was criticised by the Human Rights Committee for not properly resourcing the Irish Human Rights Commission and it recommended that the State should strengthen the independence and capacity of the Irish Human Rights Commission to fulfil its mandate effectively under the UN Paris Principles. It is important that in this current review in July the State can unequivocally demonstrate its support for the new human rights and equality infrastructure in the State.

In this regard there are some elements of the draft legislation which we hope can be improved on by the Seanad during its passage through the Oireachtas - we are aware it is currently before the Seanad. While a strong commitment to the proper funding of the body in the years to come will be important, when we consider how co-operation between the Irish Human Rights Commission and the Oireachtas can improve we need to consider what has worked and what has not worked, and how the statutory body responsible for equality and human rights can assist the Senators, as parliamentarians, in upholding human rights and holding the Executive to account. Here we are fortunate in so far as it is increasingly recognised, under a number of international benchmarks, in particular the UN Paris Principles, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, PACE, and the Belgrade Principles, and the upcoming report of PACE through the work of their colleague on the committee, Senator Katherine Zappone, that parliaments and the NHRIs must work together if we, as a society, are to properly uphold the rule of law and human rights and equality standards.

For our part, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission is keen to build stronger links with the Oireachtas. We have recommended that on the parliamentary side a dedicated committee be established to examine equality and human rights matters with structural linkages to other committees. We have also recommended that section 23 of the IHREC Bill should be strengthened to add references to the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission regularly meeting with parliamentary committees under procedures to be agreed and to promote law and practice relating to the protection of equality and human rights by respecting the independence of the commission and noting any capacity constraints. One other area we can offer to parliamentarians is in training to State bodies and parliamentarians on human rights and equality.

I am happy to take questions. Dr. Hogan and I are at the committee's disposal.