Eamonn Tansey is PILA’s Project Officer and member of the FLAC ICESCR Team.
Over two days of public hearing in Geneva last week, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (the Committee) questioned a 22 person strong government delegation, led by Minister of State Sean Sherlock, on what the State has been doing since 2002 to protect a basic level of rights in areas such as education, health, social security, family life and adequate living standard, especially for more vulnerable groups. Over the course of the two days, the Committee, comprised of 17 legal and human rights experts, asked the Government over 100 questions on what they are doing to promote and protect the rights contained in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (the Covenant). Under the Covenant, the State must report to the Committee every 5 years on their progress in protecting and promoting the rights contained therein. The State had not engaged in the reporting process since 2002.
Given the 13 year interval between the last State report to the Committee and the seismic economic and social shift that took place in the intervening years, this most recent reporting process was of utmost importance. For these reasons, FLAC through its PILA project has been working with over 80 civil society organisations since May 2014 to develop a parallel report to the State’s report on how the Government is meeting its human rights obligations. The process involved a number of nationwide consultations which sought to engage with as many civil society organisations as possible to gather information and evidence to present to the committee. The reporting process culminated in the submission of the Our Voice Our Rights civil society report to the Committee in September 2014 and an updated parallel report in May 2015.
Last week’s examination in Geneva provided further opportunity for civil society organisations to supplement the reporting process by making formal representations before the Committee on a number of rights areas and issues. FLAC was privileged to coordinate and be part of the delegation which included representatives from Threshold, Community Law & Mediation, Atheist Ireland, Tallaght Trialogue, Justice for Magdalenes Research, the Abortion Rights Campaign, Pavee Point, the Irish Family Planning Association and the UCD Human Rights Network. Following the formal presentations on Monday morning, the Irish NGO delegation was granted exclusive access to Committee members to provide and present further information and evidence to support their earlier submissions.
Throughout the two day hearing, the Committee expressed huge gratitude to the NGO delegation in attendance and the 80 plus civil society organisations that contributed to the Our Voice Our Rights parallel report and updated report. It was clear from proceedings that the Committee relied heavily on the evidence provided by civil society when formulating their over 100 questions for the Government delegation. During the examination, Committee members openly interacted with members of the NGO delegation seeking clarification on elements of Government representative’s responses to further hone the Committee’s line of questioning.
The Committee questioned the government on a broad range of rights issues contained in the Covenant. With regard to the incorporation and justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights into domestic law, the Committee questioned Ireland’s reluctance to accept the Constitutional Convention’s recommendation to include such rights in the Constitution. On the issue of non-discrimination, the Committee questioned whether the Government planned to renew the National Action Plan on Racism. The Committee’s questioning in relation to legal aid and access to justice was focused on strengthening and extending legal aid to social welfare and employment appeals tribunals and for the enforcement of the right to adequate housing.
Unfortunately due to time constraints the Government was not in a position to answer all the questions put to it by the Committee. The Committee Chair did however request written answers within 48 hours of the close of session. The Committee will now prepare its concluding observations highlighting areas where the State must take further action to protect and promote the rights contained in the Covenant. These observations are due to be published early next week on the Committee website. It is hoped that they will reflect the considerable evidence presented to the Committee through the Our Voice Our Rights reports and the impassioned representations made by the Irish civil society delegation. We hope to use these concluding observations to continue to press the Government to further each cause we are party to and to build on the considerable civil society collaboration and solidarity that drove this process forward.
For further details on the Our Voice Our Rights reporting process and associated resources including our civil society contributor blog please click here.