30 March 2022
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has called for three Constitutional amendments to help guarantee gender equality. The three amendments would provide protection for non-marital families, recognise and remunerate care work, and remove anachronistic language placing women in the home. The call comes as the Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality examines recommendations made to it by the Citizens Assembly.
ICCL also makes recommendations regarding online abuse which is disproportionately aimed at women. Rather than focusing on the removal of all harmful or illegal content – which is impossible to police and inevitably leads to censorship of content which is not harmful or illegal – ICCL recommends the focus should shift to regulating recommender systems. Making sure algorithms do not promote harmful or illegal content is a more efficient and effective way of protecting people online.
ICCL’s Head of Legal and Policy Doireann Ansbro said:
“All of society, not just women, stand to benefit from real gender equality. Unfortunately, some provisions in our Constitution are blocking such equality. Not all families are considered equal, for example. And the work that many women, and people of all genders, do in caring for others has gone unrecognised for too long. Only the people of Ireland, via referendum, can change this.”
ICCL makes further recommendations on supporting victims of domestic and gender-based violence, such as providing free legal aid and health care. We also reiterate our call for an Ombudsperson for Victims of Crime, and we call for a thorough and timely review of the abortion legislation.
ENDS/
Read our submission to the Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality here: https://www.iccl.ie/resources/submission/iccl-submission-to-committee-on-gender-equality/
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) is Ireland’s oldest independent human rights campaigning organisation. We monitor, educate and campaign to secure human rights for everyone in Ireland.
For comment: Doireann Ansbro, Head of Legal and Policy
For media queries: sinead.nolan@iccl.ie