3 June 2021
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) will today publish a comprehensive report into the government’s response to Covid-19 from a human rights law perspective. ICCL’s Liam Herrick will be joined by the Policing Authority’s Helen Hall and Paddy Connolly of Age Action Ireland.
Though ICCL has been broadly supportive of government efforts to protect the rights to life and health, we will make 90 recommendations where the response needs to improve to better protect human rights.
ICCL will recommend that the emergency legislation which is before the Oireachtas for renewal this week should be subject to several amendments, including parliamentary oversight of all regulations and a final sunset clause beyond which renewal is not possible. ICCL will not support the renewal of this legislation in its current form.
ICCL will repeat many of the calls we have made throughout the pandemic: that the rights to pandemic-safe protest and worship should be explicitly protected; that dangerous garda spit hoods should be banned entirely; and that disaggregated data be compiled and published so that society can understand the impact restrictions have had on various groups such as older people, women, people seeking international protection, and the LGBTI+ community.
Chief Executive of the Policing Authority, Helen Hall, will speak to the experience of the oversight body in monitoring the expanded police powers. And CEO of Age Action, Paddy Connolly, will describe the experiences of older people throughout the past year.
ENDS/
Find a briefing for media and policy makers here: https://www.iccl.ie/human-rights-in-a-pandemic-iccl-briefing/
Join the launch on Thursday at 10am here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84468645936?pwd=WFVLVjhDMVFjQnEyTSt5ampGSzFSZz09
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: Liam Herrick
For media queries: sinead.nolan@iccl.ie