With the 1998 International Human Rights Year now under way, the Government should ratify the UN conventions against torture and racial discrimination, according to the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. An amnesty for asylum-seekers already in the country and implementation of the Refugee Act were also called for.
"It is scandalous and deeply embarrassing that Ireland, almost alone of democratic states, has failed to ratify two of the most fundamental human rights conventions, the UN Convention Against Torture and the Un Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination," said the ICCL.
