Sir, – On Tuesday morning in Geneva, Hélène Tigroudja,a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, highlighted that the Irish delegation failed to even attempt to answer some questions.
The diplomatic etiquette in these interactions holds that when a state is unable to account for itself in the moment, it can promise a written response after some reflection. On the matter of the refusal to publish two reports by the Inspector of Prisons into serious allegations about the women’s prison in Mountjoy, even this commitment was not made.
If rights-based language is the moral and political discourse chosen by the Irish Government to advance change domestically, then it cannot refuse to answer questions about the rights of some of our most marginalised and traumatised citizens.
The sizeable high-level delegation dispatched to the hearings indicates that the State takes its commitment to human rights seriously or that the optics are favourable in a global context. But this lack of response on critical issues relating to the Irish prison population suggests an indifference to – or blatant disregard of – the rights of this neglected cohort of our society. – Yours, etc,
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KEITH ADAMS,
Social Policy Advocate,
Jesuit Centre for Faith
and Justice,
Dublin 1.
A chara, – It is indeed true that “Ireland’s abortion legislation is inhumane and discriminatory in its treatment of women with crisis pregnancies” (News, July 5th), as was said to the United Nations Human Rights Committee. But not in the way that the statement was intended.
Hélène Tigroudja, a French member of the committee, said the legislation places very many barriers, both legal and practical, to “safe, legal and non-discriminatory access to abortion”.
What she did not point out is that the failures of the Irish Government to put in place measures to ensure that very practical barriers, including poverty and the limited supports, do not prevent women with crisis pregnancies from bringing their pregnancies to birth in the beginning of new life rather than ending it. Those failures echo the failures over many years to ensure Travellers do not suffer from fatal life-limiting anomalies in their living conditions.
Can it be possible that among the 29 members of the delegation accompanying Minister for Children and Equality Roderic O’Gorman to Geneva to respond to the committee, or among the 37 NGOs, “led by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties”, there was not a single voice to speak for those women, and for the unborn children whose lives ended?
After all, Ireland was not unanimous; one-third of those who voted in the referendum on the repeal of the Eighth Amendment wanted that.
Can it be possible that there was perhaps even one voice to speak for them, but The Irish Times failed to notice it? Or that there was not even one such voice, and The Irish Times failed to point out this anomaly? Even though it is contrary to the Irish Times view, it is still part of the news which needs to be reported. – Is mise,
PÁDRAIG McCARTHY,
Sandyford,
Dublin 16.
Sir, – Minister for Children and Equality Roderic O’Gorman told the UN Human Rights Committee this week that Ireland aims to have 400 multi-denominational primary schools by 2030. But he simply ignored the fact that the UN committee has repeatedly asked Ireland to also provide secular or non-denominational schools.
Indeed, Ireland misled the UN committee in its written response, by saying the Government’s objective is to have 400 “multi-denominational or non-denominational schools”.
But this is not so. The programme for government refers only to “multi-denominational” schools.
And in the final question of this week’s UN session, the committee reminded Ireland that it had not given any information about its commitment to provide a greater number of non-confessional or secular schools.
Why is this important? Opening up more multi-denominational schools will not necessarily help minorities as many of these schools operate in practice as Catholic schools while claiming that they have a Christian ethos.
Even with the maximum implementation of the proposed Government plan of 400 multi- denominational schools (and no non-denominational schools), that would still leave 85 per cent of schools with a single denominational ethos.
Also, most areas have standalone schools, so atheist or minority faith parents in those areas would have no choice other than to send their child to a school with an even stronger Catholic ethos, which is what the bishops are lobbying for in return for divesting a small number of schools.
All of this shows why multiple patronage and multiple ethos as the basis for policy is the underlying problem in Irish schools, not the solution. The Oireachtas Education Committee has already concluded that this brings about segregation of children and inequality.
Ultimately the only way for the education system to treat everybody equally is to have State-funded secular schools that do not promote either religion or atheism, but simply teach children in an objective, critical, and pluralistic manner. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL NUGENT,
Chairperson,
JANE DONNELLY,
Human Rights Officer,
Atheist Ireland,
Dublin 9.
