THE PUBLICATION of the scheme of a Bill setting up a new Human Rights and Equality Commission is a positive step on the road towards establishing an independent and effective institution for combating discrimination and the denial of human rights. However, further discussion will be needed to ensure it complies fully with the highest international standards and the need for robust human rights machinery.
The scheme provides for an open and transparent mechanism for appointing the members of the new commission, and for it to report directly to the Oireachtas, rather than the Department of Justice. However, it will still receive its budget from the Department of Justice, which could undermine its independence and which proved to be the undoing of the Equality Authority and, to a lesser extent, the Human Rights Commission, whose budgets were slashed by this department under the last government.
Many of the proposals in the outline of the Bill are welcome, including that the new body have enhanced powers to conduct inquiries, and explicit recognition of its right to provide information and assistance to individuals who consider their rights infringed, to take legal action and intervene in court cases in defence. The Bill also includes an express duty on public bodies to have due regard to human rights and equality.
However, there is no provision for the enforcement of this duty, other than by including it in strategic plans. Given that prior to the 47 per cent budget cut in 2008, half the complaints supported by the Equality Authority were against public bodies, the need for a robust enforcement mechanism appears to be unanswerable.
The Minister has stated that it is the intention of the Government to achieve “A” status with the UN for the body as a national human rights institution. The criteria for this are set out clearly in what are known as the Paris Principles.
They include total independence in the appointment and composition of the institution; a socially and ethnically diverse membership; security of their tenure; the appointment of its own staff rather than staffing of secondees from government departments; and a clear mandate. The Paris Principles also stress the absolute requirement that the body have adequate resources to carry out its mandate. This may be a challenge in the current climate, but dire economic straits are precisely the conditions that produce breaches of vulnerable people’s rights to respect and equal treatment.