Sir, - It was ironic that Sir Herman Ouseley, head of Britain's Commission on Racial Equality, chose a seminar in Dublin to call for tougher anti-discrimination laws in Britain (August 27th).
Sir Herman was probably unaware that this Republic has no laws outlawing racial or ethnic discrimination and that Ireland is almost alone among developed democracies in not having ratified the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Indeed, the Republic now lags behind Northern Ireland in this area following the recent establishment of a Commission on Racial Equality in the North.
The Republic has not so far suffered the levels of discrimination and racist violence experienced in Britain, but the alarming outburst of hostility towards refugees earlier this summer and the ongoing prejudice against travellers make anti-discrimination laws increasingly urgent here as well. These developments call for leadership from the Government, not the panic closing of borders in defiance of our undertakings to the UN High Commission for Refugees, which is what we have got from Nora Owen and John O'Donoghue.
The Government has professed itself honoured by President Robinson's appointment as UN High commissioner for Human Rights. If it wants to live up to that honour and to halt the growth of racism in Ireland, it should urgently ratify the Convention against Racial Discrimination, re-introduce the Equal Status and Employment Equality Bills, and implement the Refugee Act in full, not just the bits it hopes will enable it to keep out more refugees and immigrants. - Yours, etc., MICHAEL FARRELL,
CoChairperson, Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Exchequer St, Dublin 2.