The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has criticised the Government for appointing only one of eight people recommended by a selection committee to the new Human Rights Commission.
The ICCL said the Government had shown a "total disregard for the process of transparency in the appointments mechanism which they only accepted with the greatest reluctance following considerable pressure from the human rights sector".
On Tuesday eight people were appointed to the Human Rights Commission, including Prof William Binchy, a law lecturer and anti-abortion activist; Ms Olive Braiden, former director of the Rape Crisis Centre; and Mr Mervyn Taylor, former Labour minister, among others.
But a selection committee, chaired by Dr T.K. Whitaker, presented a list of eight names to the Government three weeks ago and only one member - Prof Fionnuala Ni Aolain, a lecturer in human rights - was appointed.
Among the seven people on this list who were overlooked by the Government were Mr Martin Collins, an activist in the Traveller movement; Ms Nuala Kelly, of the Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas; Mr Michael Farrell, solicitor and former chairman of the ICCL; and Ms Ursula Barry, an economics lecturer.
"The real victims in all of this are people with disabilities, Travellers and other minorities who have been sidelined in this vital new infrastructure for human rights in the Republic," Mr Donncha O'Connell, director of ICCL, said.
He added that the Commission had been allocated an inadequate budget of £600,000.
The Human Rights Commission was set up under the Belfast Agreement to promote human rights in the State and monitor human rights.