AMNESTY’S REPORT has expressed concern on a range of issues around the Government’s treatment of children.
These include the failure to schedule the promised referendum on children’s rights and high levels of child poverty here.
It also expressed concern at the “inadequate availability of non-denominational primary education in Ireland”.
In the criminal justice area, the report noted “the persistence of overcrowding in a number of prisons”, the lack of mental healthcare and the “high level of inter-prisoner violence”.
On policing, it said the Human Rights Commissioner had expressed regret at the backlog of cases against Garda members that had built up in the new Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission.
Amnesty was concerned that the “drastic cuts” in funding in 2009 threatened to prevent the Human Rights Commissioner and the Equality Authority from carrying out their work.
The report also said there was “impunity for domestic violence due to high withdrawal rates of complaints and few convictions”.
