THE GOVERNMENT has been urged by Amnesty International to sign an optional protocol to an international covenant on human rights, accusing it of “dragging its heels’’ on the issue.
Countries including Spain, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands and Finland have agreed to sign the new protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) when it opens for signature in New York on September 24th.
The ICESCR is an international treaty guaranteeing economic, social and cultural rights. It was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1966 and ratified by Ireland in 1990.
The new protocol would allow individuals or groups working on their behalf to seek UN assistance if their rights under the covenant are violated.
This is already available to people in terms of their civil or political rights.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said no definite decision had been taken on signing the protocol, and interdepartmental consultations on the matter were ongoing.
Colm O’Gorman, director of Amnesty’s Irish section, called on the Government to add its signature later this month.
“Countless numbers of people around the world, and here in Ireland, have their rights to adequate housing, to health, to education violated and ignored by their own governments,’’ he said.