A TWO-DAY international conference on health and housing rights, organised by Amnesty International, opens in Dublin today.
It will be addressed by Minister for Health Mary Harney, UN special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing Miloon Kothari and Justice Kate O'Regan of the Constitutional Court of South Africa.
Amnesty International extended its mandate to encompass economic, social and cultural rights in recent years, according to its spokesman, Justin Moran. The Irish section of Amnesty International has been working on the application of a human rights-based approach in Ireland and this conference will look at how such an approach can inform the Government's development of social policy and service delivery.
Increasingly individuals and organisations in Ireland are responding to issues of concern from a human rights perspective, he said. "Our belief is that human rights standards can provide solutions that work both for the individual and for the economy.
"At a time of economic difficulty it is more important than ever to ensure that human rights standards underpin Government policy and planning."
Colm O'Gorman, Amnesty International Ireland's executive director, told The Irish Times yesterday: "Human rights, like access to adequate health services and housing, should not be considered a luxury but as an essential component of any just and stable society.
"Under human rights law, signed and ratified by Ireland, every person has the right to the highest attainable standard of mental and physical health and the right to adequate housing," he said. "Responsibility for making these rights real rests with the Government. Successive Irish governments have committed to uphold these rights and have not delivered. But there is also a responsibility on those of us campaigning for social justice to work with governments in identifying credible alternatives and proposing realistic solutions. This debate, less than a week after the Budget and in the midst of global economic turmoil, could not be more timely."
Ms Harney will address the conference today and Minister for Housing Michael Finneran will do so tomorrow.
Mr Kothari, who will also address the conference today, is the former special rapporteur on adequate housing for the UN Commission on Human Rights and is a founding member of the Committee on Human Rights in Trade and Investment.
Kate O'Regan has been a justice with the Constitutional Court of South Africa since 1994. The South African constitution contains commitments to social and economic rights. She was recently appointed by the secretary general of the UN as chairperson of the newly established Internal Justice Council of the UN.
Other speakers include Freek Spinnewijn, who has been the director of FEANTSA, the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless, since 2001; Alicia Ely Yamin, an expert in global health and human rights at Harvard Law School and a member of various expert groups on the subject; Dr Muiris Mac Carthaigh of the Institute of Public Administration, currently working on a project concerning the autonomy and accountability of public sector agencies in Ireland; and Noeleen Hartigan, programmes director with Amnesty International Ireland.