April Irish Centre for Human Rights Wins Top EU Rights Contract for the Second Time

The Irish Centre for Human Rights and School of Law at NUI Galway has won a major EU contract for Irish Law and Social Data Research, once again becoming Ireland’s national focal point for the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.

This is the second time that the prestigious FRANET-Ireland contract for data collection and research services on fundamental rights issues in Ireland has been awarded to the Irish Centre for Human Rights. The new contract covers a period of four years and will run until November 2022.

The research focuses on a number of thematic areas that are reported on annually, these include: Access to justice; asylum, migration and borders; information society, privacy and data protection; gender; hate crime; LGBTI; people with disabilities; racism and related intolerances; rights of the child; Roma rights.

FRANET is the EU Fundamental Rights’ Agency’s multidisciplinary research network. The work of the Fundamental Rights Agency is critical in informing EU policy and fundamental rights across the EU member States.

The Irish Centre for Human Rights has assembled a team of Ireland’s leading human rights and social science experts, located at academic institutions and in civil society, to analyse and report on the state of human rights in Ireland, and to raise awareness of the public policy importance of the Fundamental Rights Agency’s research and legal opinions.

Professor Siobhán Mullally, Director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway and FRANET Senior Expert for Ireland, commented: “We are very pleased to take this leading role in analysing the protection of fundamental rights in Ireland, and thereby contributing to the strengthening of fundamental rights in Ireland and across the EU. We are particularly pleased to partner with Ireland’s leading human rights researchers and civil society advocates to undertake this ground-breaking work.”

Under the previous FRANET contract the Irish team of experts led by the Irish Centre for Human Rights, completed a multi-year project on The Right to Independent Living for Persons with Disabilities. The project identified drivers and barriers to the transition to community-based support in fulfilment of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

For more information, contact Emily Brennan FRANET Research Manager, Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway at emily.brennan@nuigalway.ie or 091 493946.

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