Ireland’s record on human rights will be examined by the United Nations tomorrow for the first time to see where it stands and how to improve it.
The UN’s Human Rights Council examines the status of these rights in each member country once every four years.
Minister of Justice Alan Shatter will tomorrow answer questions on the Irish record in a three hour interview in Geneva.
Ireland is one of the last 16 of the 192 UN members to have its human rights record assessed through the Universal Periodic Review.
The process allows countries to be examined not by a governing body, but by their peers.
Reports from the government and non-governmental organisations such as the Irish Human Rights Commission were filed in July and March. These reports are the first step of the review process and detail what Ireland has done well and where gaps in the human rights record exist.
The second step of the process is Mr Shatter’s interview with the council tomorrow.
At the review, the government can choose to make commitments to improve certain areas before receiving suggestions from peer countries.
The council will then make a list of recommendations on how Ireland can improve. At the next review in four years time, Ireland will be expected to report on progress made since the previous examination.
Ireland is seeking to be elected to the Human Rights Council in 2012.
In the Seanad last week, Irish Human Rights Commission president Maurice Manning described human rights as the basic fundamental and crucial elements of people’s lives.