Atlantic Philanthropies

The Situation in Brief

Reconciliation and Human Rights in the Republic of IrelandIreland has a good reputation for promoting human rights around the world but the Government must ensure that rights are protected and respected nationally. Inequality, racism and discrimination are experienced by many marginalised groups in Irish society and strong independent organisations are needed to advocate for such communities to enable them to access services and vindicate their rights.

While the overall objective of Atlantic’s Human Rights Programme in Ireland is to secure an enduring capacity to protect rights, we also seek to deliver specific changes to policy and practice which improve the lives of particularly marginalised groups.

In Ireland the priorities of the programme are:

  • Access to rights and services 
    • Immigrants
    • People with disabilities
    • The LGBT community
  • Strengthening the central human rights infrastructure

Reconciliation & Human Rights Resources

General 

Immigration

LGBTI

Disability

Facts at a Glance – Migration

  • During the 1990s, Ireland experienced unprecedented levels of prosperity and its first-ever significant inflow of migrants — both workers and asylum seekers — from outside the EU. 
  • From 1990 to 1994, Ireland was the only Member State with a negative net migration rate.1 By 2007, Ireland had the third highest migration rate of the 27 EU States, with 14.5 migrants per 1,000.2
  • In a short time, Ireland encompassed about 170 languages, from Acholi to Zulu, and immigrants grew from 2% to over 10% – an expansion that took decades in other EU countries.3
  • Immigrants fill lower-skilled jobs than appropriate for their education, are less likely to find professional or managerial positions and are twice as likely to report workplace discrimination as their Irish counterparts.4
  • The recession has hit non-Irish nationals harder: their unemployment was 14.7% in the first quarter of 2009 compared to 9.4% for Irish nationals. Migrants work in sectors experiencing the most significant job losses, including construction, wholesale and retail.5
  • Black immigrants are nine times more likely than white Irish nationals to be unemployed.6
  • An EU-wide survey shows Ireland is among the worst of all the EU countries regarding victims of racial discrimination and abuse.7
  • 73% of Africans have experienced discrimination and a high percentage said there were places they would not venture for fear of discrimination or racially-based attack.8 

Facts at a Glance – Disability

  • 9.3% of the population, or 393,800 persons, reported a disability.9
  • Overall, 48% reporting a disability were males and 52% females. Intellectual and learning (61%) and speech (54%) disabilities were the only categories where the proportion of males exceeded females. Vision had the highest proportion of females at 58%.10
  • The 65-plus age group accounts for 36% of persons with a disability. The 0-17 age group represented the largest proportions with speech (29%) and intellectual learning disabilities (38%). Persons from 18-64 accounted for 68% of emotional, psychological and mental health disabilities.11
  • About 4,200 people with intellectual disabilities are living in unsuitable and outdated institutions or group homes that need to be closed or replaced.12  300 people with intellectual disabilities live in psychiatric hospitals and 350 in “de-designated” units of psychiatric hospitals that simply have been reclassified as community units.13
  • The future for people with disabilities is living in small group homes or individual housing, with support based on need, including having access to education and employment, having choices rather than accepting the services an institution provides, and being able to live with dignity.
  • People with disabilities face significant barriers to participating in society. They are more likely to attain lower levels of education, especially if disabled from birth; to have poor health; to be unemployed; and to live in consistent poverty.
  • Ireland has signed but not ratified the EU Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which protects the human rights of all those with disabilities, including people with mental health difficulties.

Facts at a Glance – LGBTI

  • Homosexuality was decriminalised in Ireland in 1993. Approximately 5-7% of the population is estimated to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT).14
  • Statistics show LGBT people continue to experience discrimination, exclusion, isolation, harassment, invisibility and multiple forms of disadvantage in their access to employment, housing and accommodation, health, education, personal safety and security.15
    • 80% had been verbally abused because of their LGBT identity; 40% were threatened with physical violence; 25% had been punched, kicked or beaten
    • 58% reported homophobic bullying in schools; 20% missed or skipped school because they felt threatened or were afraid of getting hurt
    • 34% reported homophobic comments by teachers or other staff members
    • 24% of those who had worked had been called abusive names related to their sexual orientation or gender identity with 15% being verbally threatened and 7% physically threatened by work colleagues
    • 27% had self-harmed at least once; 85% more than once
    • Almost 18% had attempted suicide, and almost half saw this as related to their LGBT identity.
    • 12 years of age was the most common age for young people to realise that they were lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. 17 years was the most common age to disclose this identity to others.
  • Ireland is in the process of introducing Civil Partnership legislation. If passed, this would confer same-sex couples who register their partnership16 with many of the same entitlements and legally enforceable duties and obligations as civil marriage.
  • Civil partnership provides some 200 fewer rights and responsibilities than civil marriage.
  • A critical omission in the proposed civil partnership legislation is legal support and recognition of children parented by same-sex couples. The legislation also fails to answer the needs of gay couples who are married or wish to marry in Ireland.
  • A government report concluded that marriage equality is the only way to give equality of status to lesbians and gay men in Ireland.17
  • 60% of people under age 50 believe that the provision of civil marriage for same-sex couples will promote a more tolerant environment and will help reduce homophobia in Ireland.18
  • Since 2002, the European Convention on Human Rights has guaranteed the rights of transsexual people to have their gender recognised and to marry someone of a different gender. To date, Ireland has not reformed its laws that fail to recognise gender change and permit marriage.19
  • Trans people continue to be unrecognised in Ireland because formal policies, supports and services do not exist to address their specific needs.20

Footnotes

1. Net migration is the number of migrants per 1,000 inhabitants.
2. Source: Ireland: From Rapid Immigration to Recession by Martin Ruhs, Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), Oxford University; Updated by Emma Quinn, Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin, September 2009, http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?ID=740.
3. Source: Irish Times, “Turning Point But No Turning Back,” 26 September 2009.
4. Source: Survey by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and the Equality Authority (2009).
5. Source: Ireland: From Rapid Immigration to Recession, by Martin Ruhs, Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) Oxford University; Updated by Emma Quinn, Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin. September 2009.
6. Source: Survey by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and the Equality Authority (2009).
7. Source: European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (Annual Report, 2009).
8. Source: European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (Annual Report, 2009). The survey was conducted for Ireland in the Dublin metropolitan area among sub-Saharan Africans and central and east Europeans.
9. Source: Census of Population, 2006.
10. Source: National Disability Survey, 2006.
11. Source: National Disability Survey, 2006.
12. Source: Irish Times, “Report Advises Rehousing 4,200,” 3 February 2010.
13. Source: Irish Times, “Report Advises Rehousing 4,200,” 3 February 2010.
14. Source: Estimate of the LGBT population in Ireland based on UK figure in Amendment to Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003: Full Regulatory Impact Assessment, UK Government publication.
15. Source: Supporting LGBT Lives: A Study of the Mental Health and Well-Being of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People (2009).
16. Source: The Civil Partnership Bill 2009.
17. Source: The Colley Report, ROI Government, 2006.
18. Source: It’s No Joke, Marriage Equality, 2009, http://www.marriagequality.ie/getinformed/fulllist/its-no-joke/.
19. Source: Transphobia in Ireland, TENI Research Report, 2009.
20. Source: Transphobia in Ireland, TENI Research Report, 2009.

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