We are pleased to welcome this guest post by Kirsten Roberts, doctoral researcher at The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London.

Parliaments can play a vital role in protecting human rights, but their potential is not being realised. Last Friday at the United Nations in Geneva, the results of an 18-month project on Effective Parliamentary Oversight of Human Rights were launched. With my colleague, Dr Philippa Webb of King’s College London, we put forward proposals aimed at encouraging parliaments to become more effective in their human rights work. This event coincided with the unanimous adoption of a Human Rights Council Resolution on the contribution of parliaments to its’ work. A debate on this the role of the Oireachtas in promoting and protecting human rights is urgently required in Ireland.

The events that have unfolded in the past six months have illustrated the important role the Oireachtas can play in supporting whistleblowers and in examining issues where the rights of people living in this country have not been fully protected. Recent months have particularly highlighted the Oireachtas’ role in promoting oversight and accountability, including in relation to the operation of the charities sector, which provides for some of the most vulnerable people in Irish society. Yet it has also been clear that a lot more could be done by the Oireachtas and its powers could be strengthened.

In democracies, parliaments are crucial in balancing the use of power by the executive and overseeing the functioning of the State. In Ireland this balance seems to be off – with the executive and civil service seemingly unwilling to cede any real control to oversight or accountability mechanisms. Yet as a crucial component of the State architecture, parliaments share a responsibility to protect, respect and fulfill the State’s international human rights obligations. In addition to this duty, parliaments are also ideally positioned to be leaders in ensuring that the State is not perpetrating human rights violations, that domestic law is not incompatible with human rights standards, and in ensuring that human rights protections are in place.

The international organization for parliaments, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, with whom we co-hosted the event in Geneva, identified seven common tools for parliamentary oversight: Committee hearings,
Hearings in plenary sittings, Inquiry commissions,
Questions,
Question time,
Interpellations, and
the Ombudsman. Many of these mechanisms are lacking in the Oireachtas or where they are in place, their ability to promote and protect human rights has not been developed.A dedicated human rights mechanism in the Oireachtas – whether it is a committee, sub-committee or rapporteur, is urgently required. This mechanism, whatever its form, should have a clear goal. In our report, we propose what such a goal might look like:

To help ensure increased compliance with human rights and a better life for all the people in this country, through publicly examining existing or potential human rights deficits identified by parliamentarians, international organisations, the National Human Rights Institution, Civil Society Organisations, the media, the public, victims, whistleblowers and others; making proposals on areas for change or improvement; and calling the government to account for failures to protect the rights of the people of this country.

A clear goal for an Oireachtas human rights mechanism would help to provide focus, purpose and clarity to its work. In addition to any mechanism, parliamentarians also have individual responsibilities. As elected representatives, parliamentarians have the responsibility to provide for the best interests of their constituents and Members of the Oireachtas should take personal responsibility for the promotion of specific human rights issues, particularly those that are relevant to their constituents. Members of the Oireachtas should also ensure they are educated on human rights standards, and aware of human rights issues. For both the human rights mechanism and individual Members there must be engagement with independent oversight bodies in the State, as well as with Civil Society Organisations, victims’ groups and regional and international human rights organisations.

It is also time to reopen the debate on whether we as citizens of this country want to give more powers to the Oireachtas. The rejected amendment to the Constitution to give the Oireachtas inquiry powers was somewhat marred by scare tactics about ‘kangaroo courts’ and the absence of sufficient time for any real debate. So instead of an Oireachtas with more powers to oversee the actions of the executive and state-funded bodies, we have been left in the situation that we have only ad-hoc mechanisms set up where the Government finds it expedient and on such terms as it wishes. Now is the time to reopen the discussion in Ireland as to what powers we wish the Oireachtas to have for oversight and accountability. How the Oireachtas can oversee human rights should be central to this debate.  I hope that the proposals we put forward in Geneva last Friday can contribute to making this much needed change.

(Disclaimer: The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of any other individual, institution or organisation.)

 

* Kirsten Roberts is a doctoral researcher at The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London. From 2008-2013 she was Acting Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Research, Policy and Promotion at the Irish Human Rights Commission. She has been a visiting researcher at Harvard Law School and has worked for the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Amnesty International. She has written widely on the topic of National Human Rights Institutions and been an independent expert and advisor for the UN, OSCE and European Commission on human rights issues. uk.linkedin.com/in/kirstenjaneroberts/Email: Kirsten.Roberts@kcl.ac.uk

The Outcome Document of the Project on Effective Parliamentary Oversight of Human Rights, as well as further information, can be found here:

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/law/research/parliamentshr/index.aspx

 

The UN Human Rights Council Resolution can be accessed here:

http://ap.ohchr.org/Documents/E/HRC/d_res_dec/A_HRC_26_L21.doc