• November 20, 2015

NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE

CPT CRITICISMS OF IRISH PRISONS STANDARDS

The European Council for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) which is the Council of Europe body which inspects prisons police stations and other places of custody has published its most recent report on Ireland.

The report highlighted a number of areas of concerns including allegations of mistreatment by police (Gardai), deaths in custody, inadequate health care facilities in some places of detention, inappropriate treatment of detained immigrants and the overcrowding of women’s prisons facilities at the Dóchas Centre (Dublin) and Limerick Jail.

The executive summary can be accessed here (with a link below to the full report):

https://www.cpt.coe.int/documents/irl/2015-38-inf-eng-executive-summary.pdf

https://www.cpt.coe.int/documents/irl/2015-38-inf-eng.pdf

This report has been published a little later than one would have been expected and as the CPT do not publish without agreement of the State inspected it seems likely that some ‘horse trading’ over the terminology in the report has gone on.

Celtic League as a UN NGO with a ‘human rights brief’ will be analysing the report in depth.

However two issues do immediately catch out attention:

In respect of health care the Irish government has in the past been urged by the Celtic League to apply the so called UN Istanbul Protocol (this was also a UN recommendation) and we have urged its application in all jurisdictions throughout the Celtic countries.
Overcrowding of female prison facilities (at Limerick jail) and the treatment of pregnant prisoners was raised by the Celtic League with the Irish government in 2009. The Justice Minister at the time (Dermot Ahern T) did give assurances the issue would be addressed.

As indicated the Celtic League will consider the full report in due course.

BERNARD MOFFATT
Issued by: The Celtic News

18/11/15

THE CELTIC LEAGUE INFORMATION SERVICE.

The Celtic League established in 1961 has branches in the six Celtic Countries. It promotes cooperation between the countries and campaigns on a range of political, cultural and environmental matters. It highlights human rights abuse, military activity and socio-economic issues

https://celticleague.net

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