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Minister pledges end to discrimination of gay teachers by 2015

Updated 15.17 The Justice Minister says rules allowing schools to discriminate against gay teache...
Newstalk
Newstalk

08.24 14 Jul 2014


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Minister pledges end to discri...

Minister pledges end to discrimination of gay teachers by 2015

Newstalk
Newstalk

08.24 14 Jul 2014


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Updated 15.17

The Justice Minister says rules allowing schools to discriminate against gay teachers will be changed by the end of this year.

Frances Fitzgerald says the government has signed off on amendments to the current law which will be in place by Christmas.

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Currently schools are allowed to discriminate against non-heterosexual teachers in order to maintain their religious ethos.

Minister Fitzgerald has told a United Nations meeting in Geneva that the Irish Attorney-General has only approved amendments to this law within the last week.

The Human Rights Council is meeting to consider whether Ireland is doing enough to guarantee the human rights of all its citizens.

This morning the Council heard from lobby groups, ahead of Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald's submission.

Many of the groups accuse the government is falling short on implementing directives contained in the convention on civil and political rights, which Ireland has ratified.

As part of that agreement, a report must be produced for the committee every five years. This is Ireland's fourth appearance before the committee.

A representative from the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has already spoken. The group's acting interim head David Joyce told Newstalk's Lunchtime programme we are definitely falling down on redress:

Mr Joyce says he is hoping some of the complaints he and other groups have made about the government will be raised with Minister Fitzgerald by the committee.

One of the groups seeking redress from the government, Survivors of Symphysiotomy, tweeted about their representative's appearance:

SoS Chairperson Marie O'Connor said afterwards, "We have raised an extremely grave breach of human rights that this government obdurately refuses to acknowledge. An estimated 1,500 women and girls, some as young as 14, had their pelvises broken, gratuitously, by doctors who believed in childbearing without limitation".

"The fact that patient consent was never sought is what makes this such a violation of human rights. Women were operated upon wide awake and often screaming: those who resisted were physically restrained".

"Ireland was the only country in the world to do these childbirth operations in preference to Caesarean section. Religious ideology and medical ambition drove the surgery" she added.

Family planning

During another representation, the Irish Family Planning Association said new Irish laws on abortion still leave us far behind international standards.

CEO Niall Behan says the abortion laws passed last year do not go far enough:

Immigrant rights

The Immigrant Council of Ireland is hopeful the appearance will put an end to delays on promised immigration reform for migrant victims of human trafficking and domestic violence.

Hilkka Becker, Senior Solicitor with the Immigrant Council of Ireland, says an independent appeals mechanism for immigration must be introduced:


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