Changes are needed in the Irish Constitution to "embody the principle of equality of women and men", according to the Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC).
The commissioner and convener of the IHRC’s gender and equality committee, Dr Katherine Zappone, said: "We see an explicit link between the unacceptable view of women’s role that is endorsed in the Constitution and Ireland’s lack of progress with regard to eliminating discrimination between women and men."
Next week the IHRC will send a delegation to New York to address the UN Committee on the Rights of Women.
The delegation aims to draw the committee’s attention to a number of areas where the IHRC believes the Government’s efforts to promote and protect the rights of women has been inadequate, including the Constitution.
"We hope that our contribution will help to inform the discussion and dialogue and contribute to a more fruitful outcome for women in Ireland and for the development of a truly equal society here," the President of the Human Rights Commission, Dr. Maurice Manning, said.
"In particular we will be emphasising the need to make changes to provisions of the Irish Constitution which ascribe a limited and dependent role to women and fails to embody the principle of equality of women and men," the IHRC chief executive, Dr Alpha Connelly, said.