Rights group calls for analysis of coronavirus restrictions

There should be a rights-impact assessment to determine what coronavirus restrictions were and were not necessary,the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has said.

ICCL head of legal and policy Doireann Ansbro said an assessment remains “outstanding”. It should be completed to determine if legislation enabling further restrictions into the future should to be renewed, she said.

On Tuesday the ICCL were addressing the joint committee on health alongside representatives from Mental Health Reform concerning the impact of Covid-19 emergency powers on fundamental rights and mental health wellbeing.

Ms Ansbro said the ICCL had carried out its own analysis on the interference of human rights across the last 14 months. She said there should have been an exemption on the fundamental right to protest in a "small, safe manner".

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“We weren’t saying that normal protest should have been allowed but small, safe protests should have been allowed given the fundamental importance of that to our democracy and especially at a time when so many decisions are being made impacting lives and livelihoods,” she said.

“We also thought there could have been a more targeted approach to restrictions on movement.”

‘Huge expansion of powers’

Ms Ansbro said in terms of regulations around criminal sanctions there were also times when the ICCL believed that this may have constituted a disproportionate penalty, essentially for the exercise of rights.

“We saw the introduction of a huge expansion of powers for the gardaí in terms of inspections, closure orders for various establishments and fines for the exercise of fundamental rights. And not only did we see the introduction of fines, we then saw legislation increasing the possibility of those fines,” she said.

She said there were times when restrictions introduced were not clearly communicated. Neither was there clarity among the population “about what was law and what was guidelines”.

Consultation with human rights experts as regulations were being drafted and assessing their impact from introduction was needed, added Ms Ansbro.

Liam Herrick, executive director of the ICCL, said it would be "preferable" if the Government could set guidelines on how people can exercise the right to protest while also respecting the safety of others.

“There might be temporary rules about wearing masks in protests or social distancing or even about the numbers of protests,” he said.

“I think that would be preferable, to allow people express their views . . . rather than effectively having a blanket ban on protests completely, which has created this risk that the guards might have to distinguish between different protesting groups, which is not very desirable.”

Mr Herrick said there should be an “urgent review” of the emergency Covid-19 legislation, which is due to lapse on June 9th but the Cabinet has agreed to extend until November 9th.