Shadow report submitted in response to Ireland's Joint 5th to 9th Periodic Report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination

Abstract

The Irish Centre for Human Rights (ICHR) at the School of Law, National University of Ireland, Galway is Ireland’s principal academic human rights centre. The ICHR undertakes human rights teaching, research, publications and training, and contributes to human rights policy development nationally and internationally. The ICHR has prepared this Shadow Report for the purpose of Ireland’s 5th to 9th Periodic Review by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). This Report provides selected research and analysis from the ICHR’s staff and researcher community; it is not a comprehensive account of all relevant issues arising under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) and should be read in conjunction with the reports of all groups that have made submissions to CERD for Ireland’s Periodic Review.1 This Report focuses on the following areas of concern:  Continuing problems in Ireland’s International Protection System, particularly regarding access to work, the segregated nature of Direct Provision centres, and the experiences of people with disabilities;  Racism and discrimination in public discourse;  The need for effective remedies for migrant women in the context of domestic abuse;  Access to justice and redress for the ‘historical’ abuses of mixed-race children in institutional residential settings;  Discrimination against Traveller communities;  Business and human rights, particularly the potential for Irish business enterprises to contribute to and further racial discrimination;  Ireland’s inaction on climate change and its contribution to racial discrimination;  Migrant workers’ rights; and  The rights of victims of trafficking.