This month the Irish Council for Civil Liberties continues its excellent Know Your Rights campaign. We have invited the ICCL to contribute a post to HRinI explaining the rationale and operation of the campaign.
May is Know Your Rights Month, and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) is spreading the word about its new collection of Know Your Rights public information booklets.
Since 1992, the ICCL has published various editions of a plain English public information guide dealing with criminal justice scenarios such as arrest, detention, searches (here and here) and court procedure. The guide has been the most sought-after of all the ICCL’s publications, and since going online in 2001, has consistently been the most downloaded document on the ICCL website. Over the course of last year, the ICCL identified the need to update this document given the great deal of legislative change in criminal law and procedure in recent years, and also the great potential for expanding the guides to offer practical information on other human rights issues of concern to the public. With this in mind, the ICCL decided to make the Know Your Rights public information project a flagship of its work in 2010.The ICCL’s Know Your Rights project is designed to inform people in clear and accessible language about their rights under various key areas of the law. Topics covered in the opening three Know Your Rights booklets are Criminal Justice and Garda Powers, Privacy and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) (forthcoming).
The booklets have been awarded the “Plain English” mark by the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) for their use of clear and accessible language. The packs are updated on a regular basis as the law changes, and are available to download at www.knowyourrights.ie.
The booklets are being featured on RTÉ Radio 1’s Today with Pat Kenny show throughout Know Your Rights Month. The first feature on Privacy was aired on Monday 10 May (listen again here). A slot on the Criminal Justice and Garda Powers booklet will air on Monday 24th May, and a slot on the ECHR on Monday 31st May.
A key aim of the Know Your Rights project is to encourage and facilitate people working in information provision and advice-giving roles to use the packs in their work. Know Your Rights month will therefore see the ICCL kick off a series of roadshow events nationwide, where the ICCL will promote the packs and raise awareness of www.knowyourrights.ie as a new resource for information on rights.