The UN Committee Against Torture has issued its (unedited) ‘Concluding Observations on the 2nd Periodic Report on Ireland’.
The report welcomes many positive legislative changes since the last CAT examination of State Provision.
However the report also includes a number of critical observations and reccomendations including allowing ‘civil society organisations’ to carry out unannounced visits to places of detention as well as State established – so called ‘Independent Monitoring Groups’.
It also highlights to various UN Rules and Procedures in relation to the detention of women highlighting the ‘non custodial options’ (the Bangkok Rules).
The report stresses the need for more training for both police, prison and justice staff in relation to the various UN Conventions relating to persons deprived of their liberty.
The CAT also once again single out the Irish government’s failure to address the Magdalene Laundries abuses and hold those State and Church agencies to account in a related observation the CAT is also critical of the recently established Irish government enquiry into the Mother and Babies Homes deaths scandal.
The full CAT observations are at this link:
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/…/I…/INT_CAT_COC_IRL_28491_E.pdf
BERNARD MOFFATT
pp Celtic League
29/08/17
