July 2021
2021 marks the 13th year of an Ireland without a National Action Plan Against Racism, which, as noted by the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) has “left an important vacuum contributing to a “normalisation” of racism” in the country. Against this background, ICCL welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the National Anti-Racism Committee on the development of a new National Action Plan Against Racism.
ICCL has a long history of advocating for human rights, and we firmly believe that there must be no place for racism in the Ireland we work for every day. Together with other Irish civil society organisations, we have previously called for the National Action Plan Against Racism to have concrete action plans with clear targets, indicators, outcomes, timeframes, and associated budget lines and include measures to fund and provide for comprehensive support to victims of racism, including access to legal advice and counselling services.
It is vital that the Plan is rooted in human rights values, democracy and rule of law.
In our submission, we call on the Government to ensure that the National Action Plan Against Racism complies fully with international standards. We note that it should provide for affirmative or positive actions and strategies and we call on the Government to ensure that it contains very clear measurable actions.