Strengthening the United Nations human rights system

Strengthening the United Nations human rights system

• In 2019, students and ICHR staff jointly submitted a Shadow Report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination for its periodic review of Ireland.

• In 2020:
  • students and ICHR staff made a joint submission to the UN Human Rights Committee to inform its List of Issues Prior to Reporting.

• students and ICHR staff made a joint submission to the UN Committee Against Torture for its List of Issues Prior to Reporting.

• students made a submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child for its Pre-Sessional Working Group.

• In 2020/21, students assisted Professor Siobhán Mullally in her capacity as UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, especially women and children. The group carried out research and drafting to assist Prof Mullally’s reporting to the UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council. They also supported event management, and published a blog on anti-trafficking law and policy internationally and in selected domestic jurisdictions.

• In 2021/22 students worked with Safety Before LNG to produce a 15-page written Communication to the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment concerning the proposed Shannon LNG regasification terminal in north County Kerry, Ireland. The submission explains the detail and history of the proposed Shannon LNG project, including the interplay between successive planning permission applications and the Irish government’s policy position against the importation of fracked gas. The submission discusses Ireland’s legal obligations under domestic and EU climate change-related legislation, and it explores the environmental and human rights-related impacts that the project is likely to have if it is permitted to proceed. The submission further delves into the question of the proposed project’s extraterritorial effects, at all stages including at source in Pennsylvania, US.