IRISH HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION:THE IRISH Human Rights Commission is in danger of going broke by the end of the year if it does not receive increased funding, its chairman told the Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.
Dr Maurice Manning was speaking yesterday to the joint committee, which has elected representatives from both Northern Ireland and the Republic, on progress on the human rights dimension of the agreement.
The setting up of human rights commissions in both jurisdictions, and the establishment of a joint committee, was a key part of the agreement.
Dr Manning said that talks were going on about the funding of the commission. “Implementation of this aspect of the Good Friday agreement can only be ensured if both commissions are properly resourced and their work supported,” he said.
Michael Farrell, a member of the commission, said that the joint committee of the two commissions had been charged with examining a charter, “open to signature by all democratic political parties, reflecting and endorsing agreed measures for the protection of the fundamental rights of everyone living in the island of Ireland”.
However, progress had been somewhat slower than hoped partly due to the length of time taken to set up the commission in the Republic, and also because the joint committee was awaiting the outcome of the Bill of Rights process in Northern Ireland.
Mr Farrell said the two commissions were committed to working together on the topic of migrant rights and had called on the two governments to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and their Families.
He said there was a commitment in the Belfast Agreement for equivalent protection of human rights in both parts of the country. It was important that the equivalence was upward, he said, and that good examples of human rights protection in one jurisdiction were followed in the other.