Parse failure for https://anti-empire.com/feed/. Last Retry Thursday January 01, 2026 13:42
Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
 Trump hosts former head of Syrian Al-Qaeda Al-Jolani to the White House Tue Nov 11, 2025 22:01 | imc
Rip The Chicken Tree - 1800s - 2025 Tue Nov 04, 2025 03:40 | Mark
Study of 1.7 Million Children: Heart Damage Only Found in Covid-Vaxxed Kids Sat Nov 01, 2025 00:44 | imc
The Golden Haro Fri Oct 31, 2025 12:39 | Paul Ryan
Top Scientists Confirm Covid Shots Cause Heart Attacks in Children Sun Oct 05, 2025 21:31 | imc Human Rights in Ireland >>
Zohran Mamdani Becomes First New York Mayor Sworn in Using Koran Thu Jan 01, 2026 11:18 | Will Jones
Zohran Mamdani?has become the first New York Mayor sworn in using the Koran, the Muslim election winner taking the oath of office as the clock ticked past midnight on Thursday night.
The post Zohran Mamdani Becomes First New York Mayor Sworn in Using Koran appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
US Government Halts Major Offshore Wind Construction Citing Fears of Radar Interference Thu Jan 01, 2026 09:00 | Chris Morrison
Donald Trump has halted construction of five major offshore wind projects, citing "classified" national security concerns. In Britain, we just throw money at the problem and hope it goes away, says Chris Morrison.
The post US Government Halts Major Offshore Wind Construction Citing Fears of Radar Interference appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
When Will the Arts Realise Woke has Peaked? Thu Jan 01, 2026 07:00 | Joanna Gray
The arts are being slow to realise woke has peaked. But as the tap of DEI and Net Zero funding and narratives emanating from the US dries up, they will surely catch on, says Joanna Gray.
The post When Will the Arts Realise Woke has Peaked? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
News Round-Up Thu Jan 01, 2026 00:44 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Gas Boiler Owners ?Will Subsidise Heat Pump Users? With New Levy Under Ed Miliband?s ?15 Billion Ene... Wed Dec 31, 2025 19:30 | Will Jones
Gas boiler owners could face a ?30 green levy on their energy bills to subsidise heat pump owners under plans reportedly being considered by Ed Miliband.
The post Gas Boiler Owners “Will Subsidise Heat Pump Users” With New Levy Under Ed Miliband’s ?15 Billion Energy Plans appeared first on The Daily Sceptic. Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en
Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en
The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en Voltaire Network >>
|
Search words: amnesty
The Irish government don't want you to know about
The Irish government can be taken to the UN for failing to deliver social, economic and political rights it guarantees to all its citizens.
Twenty years ago, on 8 December 2009, the Irish Government ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). They refuse to re-ratify it, and have failed to deliver on it for the past twenty years.
 The Irish government's best kept secret... Twenty years ago tomorrow the Irish Government ratified a legally binding international treaty guaranteeing everyone living in Ireland fundamental human rights. amnesty International Ireland today described the treaty as “one of the country’s best kept secrets” and launched an online campaign encouraging people to take action in support of their human rights.
“When the Irish Government ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1989 we were guaranteed rights to health, housing, education, an adequate standard of living and more, but the vast majority of Irish people have never heard of it,” said amnesty International Ireland Executive Director Colm O’Gorman.
amnesty International Ireland has launched a new website, www.amnesty.ie/secret, and contacted over 10,000 people online asking for their help to spread the word about the treaty the Irish Government doesn’t want you to read.
“It’s one of Ireland’s best kept secrets that each of us has these rights and that successive governments have had a duty to deliver them,” continued Mr O’Gorman. “Later this week the budget will be published, we know some tough choices have to be made but the Government has a legal obligation to deliver on these human rights and the evidence so far shows it’s falling short.
“We’re supposed to have a right to free primary education but 74 per cent of parents are asked for a contribution to their school’s running costs every year.
“We’re supposed to have a right to housing but four and a half thousand people are homeless at any one time, about a thousand of whom are children.
“We’re supposed to have a right to health but hundreds of children are detained in adult mental health facilities because there is not enough child appropriate accommodation.
A new protocol to the treaty was recently agreed that would allow people living in Ireland to take the Government to the United Nations if it was failing to work to deliver these rights. Thirty countries, including Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and Argentina have signed it. Ireland has not.
“People can only demand their rights from the Government if they know they exist,” said Mr O’Gorman.
“We’ll be asking everyone who logs on to www.amnesty.ie/secret to email the Taoiseach and call on him to sign up to the new protocol. Ireland says a lot about human rights on the world stage, it’s time to stand up for human rights in Ireland.”
|
national |
rights, freedoms and repression |
press release
Monday December 07, 2009 12:24
by Amnesty Ireland - Amnesty International
commassistant at amnesty dot ie
printable version
Digg this
del.icio.us
Furl
Reddit
Technorati
Facebook
Gab
Twitter
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (5 of 5)
Jump To Comment: 5 4 3 2 1"Homelessness isn't just a matter of no free housing, it is a complex social problem that cannot be solved by offering people houses. Ask any homeless advocate group."
Yes it is. You could also ask anyone who's worked on housing rights issues. Nowhere is 'free housing' being proposed as the one and only solution to the issue.
"Not exactly denying the right to health by providing the same services to children as provided to adults. Not appropriate, but as long as the govt provides a minimum standard of care they aren't in violation the treaty"
Yes they are. The right to health as explained in General Comment 14 specifically states that health care must be appropriate, not minimum, and under progressive realisation (Article Two of ICESCR) the achievement of the right must be done progressively. In other words if you can't deliver the right straight away you need to prove progress towards it. That's not 'minimum'.
http://www.aspire-irl.org/General%20Comment%2014.pdf
I get the point you're trying to make, that it's a lot more complicated than simply saying the right exists and you're right. But where I think you're wrong is the suggestion that decades of human rights law and decisions haven't already covered and gone into a lot of these areas.
"We’re supposed to have a right to free primary education but 74 per cent of parents are asked for a contribution to their school’s running costs every year"
Key word here is 'asked'. Not required. Not that terrible that a school that relies on minimum funds to ask for a voluntary contribution.
"We’re supposed to have a right to housing but four and a half thousand people are homeless at any one time, about a thousand of whom are children"
Homelessness isn't just a matter of no free housing, it is a complex social problem that cannot be solved by offering people houses. Ask any homeless advocate group.
"We’re supposed to have a right to health but hundreds of children are detained in adult mental health facilities because there is not enough child appropriate accommodation"
Not exactly denying the right to health by providing the same services to children as provided to adults. Not appropriate, but as long as the govt provides a minimum standard of care they aren't in violation the treaty
Shell to sea was informed 2 years ago that the civil servants studying the Arhus convention found it satisfactory but that the politicians did not want to ratify it. Eamon Ryan knows all about it but chooses to ignore it.
It would be great if Amnesty International added this to their agenda as well.
THE IRISH PEOPLE ARE BEING CONNED BY FIANNA FAIL CONTINUOUSLY. WHEN WILL THEY WAKE UP?
All good points there but a lot of what you're asking for has been laid out. The treaty guarantees the rights. The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights monitors the implementation of the right and interprets it through what are called General Comments. Every State is also obliged to periodically report to the Committee on what it has done to deliver these rights.
So the mechanisms, structures and interpretations you're asking for are, in many cases, laid out in Committee decisions or comments.
More here: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cescr/
Need to discuss precisely what we DO mean when we say "X has a right to Y"
It is clear that this means "No Z can take Y away from X or place an obstruction between X getting Y".
It is far less clear that it means "Z has an obligation to provide Y to X"
STOP -- don't take me wrong here. I am not saying that this shouldn't be so, not saying that there isn't an obligation to provide Y to X. But I am saying that this wouldn't come just from "X has a right to Y" but from the much stronger "X has an entitlement to Y".
And even in that case, you can't necessarily make the jump from SOMEBODY must have the obligation to privide Y to X to lay that obligation where you please. You need some additional assumptions about "assignment of duties" becuase otherwise you can't get from "somebody has this duty" to "HE (or she) has this duty".