The Irish Centre for Human Rights at the National University of Ireland, Galway is pleased to announce details of their Summer School programmes for 2013. 2013 Summer School Programmes at the Irish Centre for Human Rights Summer School on Human Rights, Migration and Globalization 8 to 12 July 2013, NUI, Galway The Irish Centre for(…)
The meaning of caste, and its global relevance, has been debated in the UK yesterday with MPs voting against adding caste discrimination to the Equality Act 2010, by 307 votes to 243. The Equalities minister, Jo Swinson, warned MPs of concern that legislation could increase stigma rather than ease the problem, with the government planning(…)
The global reaction to the trailer for the film The Innocence of Muslims has prompted the banning of the video-sharing website Youtube (owned by Google) in three States – Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Youtube has itself restricted access to the film clip in a number of States, including Egypt, India, Indonesia and Libya, but maintains(…)
Slavery is in the news this week, with the convictions in the UK of four members of a family for forcing destitute men into “servitude”, including two counts of requiring a person to perform forced or compulsory labour. The Guardian reports that it is the “first successful conviction under new “modern day slavery” laws since(…)
On 22 March, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva adopted the draft resolution, proposed by the United States, on reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka. It was issued in a context of war crimes accusations over the conduct of Sri Lankan forces in the final throes of the conflict with the LTTE (Tamil Tigers)(…)
I participated as a witness at the South Africa session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine which took place last month in Cape Town, from 5-7 November. The Tribunal was founded in the 1950s by the philosopher Bertrand Russell, and originally hosted by Jean-Paul Sartre. Formally calling itself the International War Crimes Tribunal, it deliberated(…)
UNESCO’s 36th General Conference begins today, running from October 25th to November 10th amid intense media interest since its executive committee decided to allow a vote to grant full membership to the Palestinians. Two-thirds of members will have to approve the bid in order for it to be successful. There have been recriminations ahead of(…)
The impending eviction of travellers from Dale Farm in Essex, delayed again but scheduled for Friday or Saturday, raises the question of whether Basildon Council’s actions will be a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, as directly applied in the UK Human Rights Act 1998. There have been a number of cases involving(…)
Amid accusations of educational apartheid in the admissions policies of Irish schools, a landmark Circuit Court ruling in Clonmel allowed an appeal by a secondary school against an Equality Authority ruling that it had indirectly discriminated against a Traveller boy in refusing to admit him. The admissions policy of the Christian Brothers High School in(…)
I was the organiser for this year’s Minority Rights Summer School, held at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway, from 13th-17th June. It was the eleventh year of the School, which always attracts an interesting group of academics, students, activists and lobbyists, as well as those with a general interest in minority and(…)
