The Irish Council for Civil Liberties () is an Irish non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting the

civil liberties Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties of ...

and

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

of people in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

History

Founded on by future President

Mary Robinson Mary Therese Winifred Robinson (; ; born 21 May 1944) is an Irish politician who served as the president of Ireland from December 1990 to September 1997. She was the country's first female president. Robinson had previously served as a senato ...

, Kader Asmal and others, the organisation's primary role is in campaigning for civil rights. It also networks with other civil rights groups nationally and internationally. During the divorce campaign of the 1980s and 1990s, the ICCL was among others who established the Divorce Action Group which campaigned to support the legalisation of divorce which had previously been prohibited in the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

. In 1995, this was successfully passed by referendum. The ICCL are a member organisation of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH). The ICCL has repeatedly sought the abolition of the

Special Criminal Court The Special Criminal Court (SCC; ) is a juryless criminal court in Ireland which tries terrorism and serious organised crime cases. Legal basis Article 38 of the Constitution of Ireland empowers the Dáil to establish "special courts" with ...

, and in 2009 opposed its expansion from a narrow focus on state security-related trials to also include

organised crime Organized crime is a category of transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a form of illegal business, some ...

. In October 2011, the ICCL said the information provided to voters in advance of polling in two constitutional referendums on the Twenty-ninth Amendment and Thirtieth Amendment was "tardy and inadequate". and advocated a 'no' vote on the proposed Thirtieth Amendment. The Thirtieth Amendment was subsequently rejected by more than 100,000 votes. In January 2020, the ICCL criticised management at CBS Kilkenny for attempting to implement facial recognition technology to record and process the biometric data of children and staff in the school. The implementation was postponed as a result.

Freedom of speech

In 2023, the ICCL expressed support for the curbing of hate speech in Ireland, but called for definitions of "hate" and "incitement", to that legislation would be focused on "only the most extreme forms of hate speech", so as not to place undue limitations on

freedom of expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...

. The ICCL also called for the freedom of expression defence in the legislation to be strengthened, referring to the precedence set by European courts which stresses that while content may be shocking or offensive, it may not be "hateful".

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Civil liberties advocacy groups Human rights in Ireland Council for Civil Liberties

History

Freedom of speech

See also

References

External links