The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) has launched a new strategy statement identifying five key issues it plans to focus on over the next three years.

The commission says it encompasses some of Ireland’s most pressing human-rights and equality issues – including housing, discrimination, and economic inequality.

The body has a statutory remit, set out under the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014, to protect and promote human rights and equality in Ireland.

Economic equality

The strategy – the organisation’s third since it was set up in 2014 – was developed after a consultation process with a range of individuals and organisations.

It identifies five key areas for the commission:

• Seeking greater economic equality in housing, employment, income, and for carers,
• Defending access to justice and the rule of law in the international-protection system, in the courts, and in the use of public powers,
• Promoting the eradication of racism, ableism, ageism, and sexism, through public understanding and State action,
• Responding to crises that threaten rights and equality – including the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change,
• Encouraging, reporting on, and enforcing the compliance of public bodies with their statutory duty.

Under the economic heading, IHREC has committed itself to promoting ”the principle and practice” of a living wage, and to seeking greater recognition of the economic and social value of care as a form of work.

Review of legislation

In the justice area, the commission is calling for the elimination of what it describes as “chronic administrative delays” in the international-protection system, citizenship, and visa decision-making.

IHREC also pledges to “promote legal and policy processes to examine and address institutional racism, ableism, ageism, and sexism across public and private bodies”.

The strategy also commits IHREC to conducting a review of the 2014 act, with a view to making recommendations on amendments that would improve mechanisms to ensure that public-sector bodies comply with their responsibilities and duties to the public.

Proactive approach

IHREC’s chief commissioner Sinéad Gibney said that the organisation was calling for a rethink of Ireland’s approach to human rights and equality.

“As we all sought safety at home, the pandemic simply shone a brighter light on the problems beyond our front door,” she added.

The commissioner said that IHREC was calling for Ireland to be proactive, both individually and as a society, and urging society to “seek the voices, views and perspectives of those who are heard least, and impacted most, by decision-making".

Gibney stated that IHREC wanted equality and dignity to be built into the policies, programmes, and institutions of our coming generations.

She added that society should not “wait for people to be wronged, and to be hurt, before forcing them to seek justice”.