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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
36 — village July - August 2012
Ù«½Ãç½½Ä
Sincerity
please,
Minister
Shatter
The government’s
commitment to the
merged Equality and
Rights Body will be clear
even before it starts
work
Öʽ®ã®Ý
37
I
N LATE June the Irish Human Rights
Commission published its last Annual
Report before it is replaced by the Human
Rights and Equality Commission later this
year. Minister Alan Shatter launched the report.
Dr Maurice Manning, the outgoing president of
the Human Rights Commission, requested the
Minister to ensure that the legislation to merge
the Equality Authority and the Human Rights
Commission would give the new Body the level
of independent functioning it would require in
order to meet international standards like the
UN Paris Principles. Manning noted, in particu-
lar, that the new Body should be allowed to recruit
its own staff at all levels.
The Paris Principles are standards to assess the
independent and effective functioning of National
Human Rights Institutions (NHRI), adopted by the
UN General Assembly in 1993. The International
Coordinating Committee of National Human
Rights Institutions assesses NHRIs against these
standards, in a peer-review system. The Irish
Human Rights Commission was awarded a suc-
culent ‘A’ status accreditation in 2003. In 2008
the Commission was reviewed for re-accredita-
tion. It retained an ‘A’ status but serious concerns
were noted by the Accreditation Committee that
likely budget cuts for the Commission could mean
non-compliance with the Paris Principles. The
establishment of the new Human Rights and
Equality Commission will require a new applica-
tion for accreditation.
Alan Shatter has stated his commitment to
ensuring that the new body should achieve the
highest level of accreditation. One of the key
benchmarks for independent functioning is
that the institution should have the autonomy to
recruit its own staff at all levels. The draft Heads
of the Bill recently published by the Minister, how-
ever, contains a provision that “the first Director
of the Commission shall be the person who on the
day prior to the establishment day is the Chief
Executive of the Equality Authority”.
This provision is contrary to the Paris
Principles and to the guidance of the Accreditation
Committee who have specified that national insti-
tutions should not rely on seconded appointments
at senior level. It ignores the recommendation of
the Working Group, established to report to the
Minister on the merger, that responsibility for
the appointment of the Director should rest with
the new Body.
There are other provisions in the Heads of the
Bill which will require amendment if the new Body
is to achieve the highest standard under the Paris
Principles when it comes to independence and
effectiveness.
The Heads of the Bill cede considerable con-
trol to the Minister for Justice in determining
the grant to be given to the new Body and in its
financial accountability. This leaves the new Body
vulnerable to another abrupt cut to its funding
such that in 2008 when the budgets of both the
IHRC and the Equality Authority were subject to
wholly disproportionate cuts by the then Minister
for Justice.
The Heads of the Bill purport to provide
accountability for the new Body, to the Oireachtas.
This should serve to strengthen its independ-
ence. However, this
accountability is lim-
ited to submitting its
strategic plans and
annual reports to the
Oireachtas and to
the possibility of the
Director being called
to account for the ‘gen-
eral administration’
of the new Body to
Oireachtas Committees.
The Minister for Justice
has tellingly described
this accountability as
“symbolic”.
The manner in
which equality is
defined in the Heads
of the Bill diminishes both the independence
and effectiveness of the new Body. Equality is
narrowly defined in terms of dignity, rights and
responsibilities. The Equality Authority used a
broader definition of equality in its work - equal-
ity in access to resources, recognition, respect and
representation.
Resources are key to effectiveness of the new
Body. The Heads of the Bill usefully require that
the new Body is provided with sufficient resources
to ensure that it can carry out each of its func-
tions effectively. However there is no mention of
how this baseline is to be independently estimated.
The Minister has, again tellingly, only referred to
the possibility of the new Body retaining any sav-
ings made from the merger. This will not in any
way address the negative impact of the cutbacks
to the two bodies over the past four years.
Civil-society groups are watching how this
merger process develops. The first test will be
the transparency of the appointments process
to the board and the expertise and independence
of the panel appointed to conduct this process.
The second test will be the appointment of the
new Chief Executive to lead the body. This should
not be decided in advance by officials in the
Department of Justice. The third test will be the
manner in which equality is defined. The fourth
test will be the resources made available to the
new Body. Failure in any of these tests will set the
new Body on a trajectory where its domestic and
international credibility will be in question before
it has even begun to operate.
Rachel Mullen is Co-ordinator of the Equality &
Rights Alliance www.eracampaign.org
The first test
will be the
transparency
of the
appointments
to the board
and the
expertise of
the panel
appointed to
conduct this
process
¨
Transparency needed
