Treatment of Travellers casts ‘dark shadow’ over democracy

Ireland’s treatment of Travellers has created a “dark shadow” over Irish democracy for decades while Irish people still struggle to show tolerance towards those from different ethnicities and backgrounds, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) has said.

In a statement published on Monday to mark the 20th anniversary of the EU’s Race and Equality Directive, the IHREC called on the new Government to ensure that the elimination of racial discrimination and promotion of equal opportunity regardless of ethnicity was “core” in future policy decisions.

It underlined the need for “greater urgency” in addressing the problems of hate crime and hate speech in Ireland by ensuring “an effective response in the criminal law”.

The new Government should also develop a “comprehensive regulatory framework” to combat hate speech online with compliance enforced by an independent statutory body and backed up by effective and proportionate sanctions, said the IHREC.

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The Black Lives Matter movement has shone an “uncomfortable light” on the unspoken reality of racism and racial discrimination in Ireland, said the commission. This country’s treatment of Travellers, in particular, has been “a dark shadow on our democracy for generations”, it added.

State and street

“Travellers have been – and continue to be – subjected to endemic racism, at street level and from the organs of the State. If the invidious impact of racism on the individual and on a community could ever be doubted, one only has to consider the effects of discrimination on generations of Irish Travellers, in their political representation, employment, education, health and life expectancy.”

Irish people must not down-play or ignore the racism that exists in this country and must respond with proper actions, said the IHREC.

In December 2019, the commission reported in Geneva on Ireland’s obligations under the UN Convention on the elimination of racial discrimination. The UN subsequently called on the State to adopt a new national action plan against racism and to phase out direct provision as part of a series of recommendations to end racial discrimination. The UN committee also warned of a “high incident of racial profiling by gardaí” and called for legislation to prohibit the practice and an independent complaints mechanism to handle such issues.

Recommendations

The IHREC says it has now outlined more than 150 recommendations for policy change across health, social care, employment, justice, education, housing and political and immigration systems which the State should consider to “show leadership in tackling racism” and for “building a more inclusive society”.

Under the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty, public bodies must by law show regard to the need to eliminate racial discrimination, promote equal opportunity and protect the rights of staff and those who use their services, said the IHREC.

Earlier this month the Department of Justice announced the membership of a new anti-racism committee which has been established to draw up a new action plan against racism for Ireland. The Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green programme for government also commits to the publication of a new national action plan against racism.

“We cannot continue to view racism in Ireland as a patchwork of individual isolated incidents of bad behaviour,” said the IHREC statement. “Rather, we need to recognise racism as a structural problem across our whole society which results, in many instances, in actual racial discrimination in employment, and the provision of services.”