JUDGES’ APOLOGIES FOR RACIST COMMENTS NOT SATISFACTORY, SAYS IRISH CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
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news report 
Wednesday February 26, 2003 12:44
by Shane
JUDGES’ APOLOGIES FOR RACIST COMMENTS NOT SATISFACTORY, SAYS IRISH CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
The recent ‘apologies’ by members of the Irish judiciary for racist remarks made while rendering judgments on Irish residents are unsatisfactory, and do not begin to respond to the gravity of these transgressions.
Racist views like those expressed by the two judges should normally be grounds for reprimand and dismissal, according to the Irish Centre for Human Rights. These remarks should be taken as evidence that such persons are unsuited for judicial office.
‘Both sets of remarks show serious defects in judgment of men who rule upon guilt and innocence and who pronounce sentences upon individuals based on considerations that are alien to criminal justice’, said Professor William Schabas, director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights. ‘In the case of Judge Kenny, his remarks indicate that a consideration in imposing sentence upon Ms Abebanjo was the conduct of other persons of Nigerian origin who were allegedly driving without insurance. No judge should ever be sentencing people for presumed crimes committed by others. Judge Neilan’s remarks indicated that he too assesses the guilt of individuals based on his perception of the behaviour of others of the same ethnic origin.’
In light of these incidents, which raise serious concerns about the impartiality of the Irish judiciary as a whole, training and sensitisation of judges is an obvious need. But Ireland also requires appropriate mechanisms to ensure that persons with such views are not appointed to the bench, and that if they manifest such opinions they are disciplined and removed. Indeed, a call to review the criteria and procedure for the appointment of judges in Ireland would not, at this juncture, be out of place.
Racist comments of this sort are simply incompatible with the judicial function, and reveal judges who are unable to rule in a fair, equitable and non-discriminatory manner. Without recognition by judges Neilan and Kenny that their comments display serious shortcomings in the judicial impartiality expected of them, and a willingness on their part to undertake significant remedial measures, the so-called ‘apologies’ cannot be considered a satisfactory resolution of the matter, said the Centre.
The Irish Centre for Human Rights is based at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and engages in teaching, research and advocacy.
Galway, 25 February 2003
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Perhaps these racist judiciary comments reveal the underlying racism in the Irish Supreme Court ruling last January, regarding citizenship of non-national parents of Irish-born children not being permitted to remain or join with the child in Ireland.
This was pointed out by Fintan O’Toole in the Week End review section of the Irish Times on 25th Jan.03. “Law with a dangerous edge of racism”
He states, “If you grew up in Melbourne or Manchester or Mississippi and your archival researches reveal that your great-grandfather left Kiltimagh at the age of six months, you can become a citizen. You acquire your Irish citizenship from sharing blood with an Irish person.”
“On the other hand, if you were born in Dublin but your parents grew up in Lagos or Bucharest or Kabul, they don’t have any right to be Irish. They don’t acquire citizenship by sharing blood with an Irish person”.
He continues: “...in effect, that Irish citizenship can pass from one generation to another in the Anglo-Saxon world, but not in those foreign countries that we see as somehow not part of ‘us’.” Yet anyone from another EU member state can come to live and bring their parents, their parents, parents, and their great , grandparents if desired.
He concludes “... that the true criterion for sorting one category of citizens from another is as vague and unsettling as the distinction between ‘us’ and ‘them’.”
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