You are invited to a Seminar on Pursuing Constitutional Protection of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights - Identifying Allies and Opportunities
On: Thursday, 14 March, at 12.00pm to 4.00pm
At: Seán MacBride House, 48 Fleet Street (entrance on Parliament Row), Dublin
The Chair for the seminar is Justice Catherine McGuinness.
Speakers at this seminar include:
- Conor O’Mahony, University College Cork
- Cecelia Forrestal, Community Action Network
- Kevin Hanratty, Northern Ireland Human Rights Consortium
- Representatives from the Constitutional Convention delegations from all parties and groupings in the Dáil have been invited to attend to outline their party position on the economic, social and cultural rights.
The list of rights protected in the Constitution is incomplete, with almost no provision for economic, social and cultural rights. Yet, human rights such as health, housing and adequate income affect every single person in Ireland. Polling shows high levels of support for both the Constitutional protection of these rights and for their examination by the current Constitutional Convention. All political parties have at some point expressed their support for inclusion of these rights in Bunreacht na hÉireann.
Organisations in Ireland came together last year to call for the Constitutional Convention to examine these human rights, and for their constitutional protection. The window for this is not yet closed. This seminar will discuss opportunities to get these rights on to the agenda of the Constitutional Convention, longer-term prospects for Constitutional change in support of these rights, and which groups are interested in pursuing this work.
The seminar is organised by Claiming Our Future, Amnesty International, the National Women’s Council of Ireland, The Wheel, Unite, OPEN, TASC, and Irish Council for Civil Liberties. Other groups and organisations are invited to get involved with this conversation and this shared agenda.
Click here to book your place.