24 November 2020
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has welcomed the publication of the report by the Council of Europe’s Committee on the Prevention of Torture today following its visit to Ireland in late 2019. We welcome the government’s stated commitment in response to ratify the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture by end of 2021, though it is not the first time we have seen such a commitment.
ICCL has been calling on the government to ratify the OPCAT since it first signed the treaty in 2007. It would provide important protections to all people who are deprived of their liberty, including those living in nursing homes, in psychiatric detention facilities, and Direct Provision centres.
Over the intervening years, successive governments have paid lip service to the idea of ratifying it. Meanwhile reports like today’s continue to emerge, which reveal much room for improvement in places where people are deprived of their liberty.
In relation to care homes, while the Committee notes positive standards generally, ICCL is concerned that nursing home residents and their families continue to complain of inadequate standards.
Faced with inadequate care, families are placed in the impossible position of having to complain to the same people who provide that care. Over the summer, the Health Minister declined a request to carry out a full investigation into the death of Ultan Meehan at a care home, after he was found with an infested wound on his face.
ICCL in 2020 received reports of Direct Provision residents who were locked into a centre during the pandemic. In 2019 we heard from a resident who was handcuffed by gardaí and escorted from his home after attempting to exercise his right to protest. Our sister organisations in the sector consistently report ongoing rights violations in direct provision centres – yet there is no independent mechanism for inspecting these places people must call home.
In relation to garda custody, the Committee found persistent and serious allegations of ill treatment by individuals during arrest and in garda stations. They reported that one individual was detained naked at a garda station. In another instance a person suffering with Parkinsons disease was made to sleep on a floor. The Committee expressed concern about the continuing failure to legislate for the right of access to a lawyer while in garda custody, identified poor systems for providing medical care to people in garda custody, and inadequate systems of record-keeping in relation to custody.
ICCL Senior Research and Policy Officer Doireann Ansbro said:
“While the Committee acknowledged the reform process that is currently in process within Irish policing, it is clear that a proper system of custody inspection cannot come quickly enough for those who face a long night alone in garda cells.”
We note that the Committee was also critical of the care afforded to vulnerable prisoners, notably those with a mental illness and they criticize the use of prison for immigration detainees. It also highlighted restrictions including physical restraint and seclusion used on voluntary patients in psychiatric institutions.
ENDS/
Find the Committee on the Prevention of Torture report here: https://mycloud.coe.int/s/AcdFZEegosRRRY8#pdfviewer
Join ICCL’s latest campaign for independent inspections here: https://www.iccl.ie/a-country-where-everyone-is-safe/
For comment: Doireann Ansbro, Senior Research and Policy Officer doireann.ansbro@iccl.ie
For media queries: Sinéad Nolan: sinead.nolan@iccl.ie