Latest News
New Family Law Legal Education materials available!
[] - January 11, 2012
Hayes Solicitors delivered a family law legal education session to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) organised by PILA on 7 December 2011. Eugene Davy, Davenet O'Driscoll and Justin Spain from Hayes Solicitors delivered the session and some of the topics that were discussed included custody, access, maintenance, divorce and separation.The materials that [ ... ]
PILA hospital litigation success for transgendered woman
[News] - November 04, 2011
An equality challenge taken through the PILA pro bono scheme has resulted in a Dublin hospital amending its policy on transgender people.Leanora Frawley of KOD/Lyons and Aoife Coghlan BL represented Ms Denise O'Herlihy in an equality tribunal challenge against the Mater Hospital. Ms O'Herlihy is transgendered male to female. When [ ... ]
Ireland is reviewed for the first time under UPR
[News] - October 06, 2011
Ireland was reviewed for the first time under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process on 6 October 2011. The UPR process allows for the peer review of the human rights record of each of the UN member states once every four years. For further information please click here.
Legal education materials available
[News] - September 27, 2011
PILA has recently updated its website with materials from legal education sessions it has organised through its pro bono referral scheme in the last year. Please click here to access mental health, immigration, refugee law materials and more!
PILA's Achievements
[News] - August 18, 2011
Since its launch in 2009, PILA has been promoting the use of the law by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for social change. On our Achievements page, you can read some examples of our achievements to date, and you can also read what some of the people we work with say about [ ... ]
PILA's Executive Summary of FLAC Annual Report 2010
[News] - June 02, 2011
The FLAC Annual Report 2010 was released today, with extensive media coverage in Ireland. As PILA is a project developed by FLAC, the Annual Report includes a review of PILA's activities in 2010.This Executive Summary is a straightforward one-page summary on the huge range of work PILA undertook in 2010 [ ... ]
PILA is now on Twitter and Facebook!
[News] - April 12, 2011
PILA has now launched accounts Twitter and Facebook! This means that you can follow and interact with the PILA Team on these social media channels, as well as our website. You can follow PILA on Twitter at twitter.com/pilaireland, and you can "like" PILA on Facebook at facebook.com/pilaie.
CERD recommends recognition of Travellers as ethnic group; urges Ireland to improve conditions for asylum seekers
[News] - March 25, 2011
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has published its concluding observations and recommendations on Ireland. CERD urged the government to incorporate the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination into Irish domestic law.CERD recommended that the government work together with the Travelling [ ... ]
Universal periodic review campaign launched
[News] - February 04, 2011
Seventeen organisations have come together to take part in the Your Rights. Right Now campaign, whose aim is to help people hold the State to account for its human rights record under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process. The UPR allows United Nations (UN) member states to directly examine each [ ... ]
Irish Child Law Clinic launches
[News] - January 31, 2011
The Child Law Clinic, an initiative at the Faculty of Law, University College Cork was launched on Thursday January 13, 2011. The clinic is a service which aims to support lawyers litigating children's issues by providing research by graduate law students and faculty members. The clinic is designed to promote [ ... ]
Equality Tribunal finds school admission policy discriminates against Travellers
[News] - December 10, 2010
In a case taken by the Irish Traveller Movement Law Centre, the Equality Tribunal has found a school's admission policy indirectly discriminatory against Travellers and has ordered the school to offer a place to the Complainant.The school prioritised applicants where they: had a brother who had attended the school; were [ ... ]
PILA sponsors ICCL's ECHR pack as part of “Know Your Rights” project
[News] - November 24, 2010
PILA was delighted to sponsor the latest pack from ICCL's "Know Your Rights" public information project, launched on 24 November 2010. The project is designed to inform people in clear and accessible language about their rights under various key areas of the law in Ireland. This third pack provides the [ ... ]
PILA launches report on costs and public interest litigation
[News] - November 08, 2010
At its recent seminar on public interest litigation on 29 October 2010, PILA launched a report titled Public Interest Litigation Report - the costs barrier and protective costs orders. PILA hopes that this report will be an informative resource and that it will stimulate debate about costs as a barrier [ ... ]
European Court of Human Rights says Irish law provides no effective remedy for unjustified delays in criminal proceedings
[News] - September 10, 2010
The European Court of Human Rights has found that Irish law provides no effective remedy for unjustified delays in criminal proceedings. In McFarlane -v- Ireland (application no. 31333/06) the Court found violations of Article 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to an effective remedy) and Article [ ... ]
Judicial Review on Access to Social Welfare Decisions
[News] - August 12, 2010
A Somali refugee has been given leave to apply for judicial review of the failure to give her access to copies of previous social welfare decisions relevant to her case. The woman, who has been recognised as a refugee, is appealing a decision about arrears of Child Benefit and was [ ... ]