One of the curiosities about John O'Donoghue's recent announcement of new laws aimed at traffickers in asylum-seekers or other immigrants is that Ireland has never shown any interest in the corresponding international convention.
The lengthily-titled Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others has been around since 1950, but Ireland has neither signed nor ratified it. Yet legislation in the area is to be introduced and passed within a matter of months.
Up to 30 international conventions and other instruments govern the obligations of states to their citizens and to one another. Some are well-known; others are obscure. Most date from the post-war period, when the desire to heal the scars of the second World War was strong and mankind sought to lay down norms for human conduct.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the general assembly of the United Nations in 1948, sets out the basic human rights and fundamental freedoms to which all persons are entitled without discrimination.
Subsequently two covenants on human rights were drawn up, one setting out civil and political rights, and the other covering economic, social and cultural rights.
Ireland signed these covenants in 1973 and ratified them, with some reservations, in 1989. The Department of Foreign Affairs, on behalf of the Government, submits periodic reports to the UN on the progress made in implementing covenants and conventions, though these are often well out-of-date by the time they come to be published and considered.
Ireland has fallen behind in ratifying a number of important conventions. It signed the Convention on Torture in 1992, but legislation creating an offence of mental torture must be introduced before the convention can be ratified. The Department of Justice is currently working on a Criminal Law (UN Convention on Torture) Bill, but progress is slow.
As far back as 1968, Ireland signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, yet attempts to ratify it flopped once again last year when the Supreme Court found certain sections of the Employment Equality Act and Equal Status Act unconstitutional.
While the first Act has since been passed in a different form, new equal status legislation is unlikely to emerge before next year. Our failure to ratify this convention is particularly embarrassing at a time when Irish society is becoming increasingly pluralist.