International Day Against Racism: Ireland is still in the "dark ages" in its treatment of racism, according to leading British human rights solicitor Imran Khan.
Mr Khan, who acted in the case of Stephen Lawrence, the black teenager murdered in a racist attack, warned that similar murders would happen here if the Government did not tackle the issue.
"I hope not, but I would have difficulty in imagining that it's not going to happen," he said. "How many deaths before we realise we have a problem?"
Mr Khan said he was "incredibly shocked" by the findings of a new report on institutional racism in this State. The Breaking Down Barriers report commissioned by Amnesty found that the Government had failed to acknowledge the existence of racial discrimination in its laws, policies and practices and had failed to take meaningful steps to combat it.
The report was written by Dr Vinodh Jaichand and Louise Beirne of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway.
Mr Khan said there had been "a flagrant failure to learn from the UK experience" despite the geographic closeness of both countries. "There appears to be a collective amnesia by Irish society to recall the discrimination that its members faced and continue to face in the UK and elsewhere."
He expressed shock at remarks quoted in the report from Irish judges. One suggested that all Nigerians flouted driving laws, while another one talked about "coloured people" . If those comments were made in Britain today, the judges would not be allowed to sit on the bench, Mr Khan said.
The report pointed out that only 1 per cent of non-EU doctors became consultants, even though almost half of junior doctors were from outside Europe. A claim from the Health Service Employers Agency that not all doctors wanted to become consultants "beggared belief", Mr Khan said.
"This is the most blatant example of institutional racism that you are going to get."
The report found "a fatal tension" between the equality and the justice remits of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. It said the equality remit was "evidently overborne" by the justice remit, and suggested that a separate department of equality and human rights be established.
It said the department had "tended to minimise the extent of the problem of racism". This was rejected by a spokesman for the department of Justice last night. He said the core of the department's remit was in protecting citizens' rights. The spokesman said the report was notable for its failure to acknowledge the Government's anti-racism work.
Kathleen Joyce, manager of Blanchardstown Traveller Development Group, said Travellers were worse off now, in terms of human rights, than in the past. The introduction of trespass legislation meant that families living on the side of the road could not integrate into the local community as they could be evicted at any time, she said.
The transfer of equal status cases from the equality tribunal to the district courts meant that Travellers were being discouraged from reporting discrimination because of the cost issues involved.
Kader Asmal, a former minister in the South African government, condemned "unspeak" - the manipulative use of language to sway public debate.
"For example, illegally deporting individuals to countries where they would be tortured is now ennobled as rendition. Prisoners of war are now enemy combatants and political refugees are designated as asylum seekers," he said.
