Ireland’s anti-torture report card

The UN Committee Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT) published its findings on Ireland on 11 August 2017.

In compiling its findings, UNCAT heard from 20 Irish NGOs who provided reports regarding Ireland’s compliance with the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, an international treaty that prohibits torture on an absolute and non-derogable basis.

Lots done – more to do

UNCAT identified a number of improvements made by Ireland since their first examination in 2011. These included, among other things, the establishment, resourcing and safeguarding of the independence of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, and the introduction of alternative community sanctions, such as early temporary release and community supervision. It commended the Irish State for the closure of St Patrick’s Institution in March 2017, as well as progress on prison conditions, including ‘slopping out’ and modernisation.

While it commended Ireland for certain developments to date, UNCAT also made significant recommendations, including:

• Ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT).
• Changes to the asylum system establishing detention as a measure of last resort.
• Improvements to conditions of detention.

Michelle Lynch is a Policy Development Executive at the Law Society of Ireland and Secretary to the Society’s Human Rights Committee. Writing in the Gazette, she looks at the recommendations of the Committee in detail, and the next stage in the process.

• Read the full article in the November 2017 Gazette

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