Treasurer's report Noreen Byrne Motions/New Executive ICCL Sub-Committees: Censorship Criminal Justice Education Finance International Treaties Mental Health Women's Committee   Home x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x New ICCL Constitution Joint Chairpersons' report Motions/New Executive ICCL Sub-Committees: Censorship Criminal Justice Education Finance International Treaties Mental Health Women's Committee   Home x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x   New ICCL Constitution Joint Chairpersons' report Treasurer's report Noreen Byrne ICCL Sub-Committees: Censorship Criminal Justice Education Finance International Treaties Mental Health Women's Committee   Home x x x x New ICCL Constitution Joint Chairpersons' report Treasurer's report Noreen Byrne Motions/New Executive ICCL Sub-Committees: Censorship Criminal Justice Education Finance International Treaties Mental Health Women's Committee   Home   New ICCL Constitution Joint Chairpersons' report Treasurer's report Noreen Byrne Motions/New Executive Home	AGM Report (Central Hotel, Dublin, 20.6.1997) The ICCL AGM took place on 20.6.1997 in the Central Hotel, Dublin. About 60 people attended.   New ICCL Constitution Siobhan Ni Chulachain, convenor of the Constitution Review Committee gave an address on the work of that committee which was established as a result of a motion passed at the 1996 AGM. Siobhan said that the primary aims of the committee were to amend the ICCL constitution to strengthen its pluralist and egalitarian nature and to open up the organisation to allow for the membership to become more involved, and to provide the structures to allow for its development outside of Dublin. The amendments to the constitution presented to the meeting were made in light of the Mediation Committee report in 1996 and consultations with members who had made submissions to the Constitution Review Committee. Siobhan's address was followed by a lengthy discussion. Points made during this discussion were to be taken into account in the final drafting of the constitution. This final draft has been circulated to the membership prior to a Special General Meeting on November 14. Joint Chairpersons' report Michael Farrell gave the Co-Chairpersons report. He started by saying that 1996-97 had not been a good one for civil liberties and human rights as it saw the reintroduction of seven-day detention for the first time in 20 years and the amendment of the constitution to drastically reduce the right to bail. There had also been allegations of serious ill-treatment of people arrested after the murder of Garda Jerry McCabe in Adare. The year had also seen posturing by nearly all of the political parties (in an election year) as to who could be the toughest on crime and this had led to calls for mandatory minimum sentencing for drug offences and for more prison spaces. In other areas, the outgoing government had capitulated to pressure and inserted a section in the Employment Equality Bill (Section 37.1) which would allow the churches to discriminate on religious grounds in hospitals and schools. There had also been an alarming increase in racist attitudes in the wake of an increase in refugees coming to Ireland.  ICCL had responded in as effective way as it could to the civil liberties challenges that the year presented. ICCL had been the only national body that had consistently opposed the introduction of seven-day detention (a briefing paper was published in July '96). ICCL was one of the main bodies involved in the Right to Bail Campaign and during the election campaign it was involved in the Alliance for Justice (with ICON, FLAC, Irish Penal Reform Trust and the probation and welfare branch of IMPACT). This ad hoc group was established to put forward an alternative strategy based on dealing with the drugs crisis and the causes of crime and strongly opposed the policy of 'Zero Tolerance'. ICCL had also undertaken a comprehensive investigation of the incidents in Limerick and supported the Alliance for Pluralism in Education - a group established to oppose Section 37 (1) of the Employment Equality Bill. ICCL had also continued to work closely with our colleagues in the Committee on the Administration Justice (CAJ), Liberty, Scottish Council for Civil Liberties, British Irish Rights Watch and Amnesty on issues to do with the Northern conflict and held regular co-ordinating meetings to ensure a joint approach. The highlight of the year was the ICCL Women's Committee conference: 'Women's Rights as Human Rights', held in February. The conference which was fully booked weeks in advance provided an excellent opportunity to discuss a large range of women's issues and to forge links for future initiatives. Another ICCL achievement during the year was the continued development of the ICCL Education Programme for Transition Year - a teachers guide and comprehensive resource list had been produced. Michael concluded on a very positive note by mentioning the lobbying that ICCL had undertaken backing President Mary Robinson for the post of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Mrs. Robinson's appointment to this important position is a considerable honour to herself, to Ireland and to the ICCL of which she was a founder member in 1976. Treasurer's report David McConnell gave the Treasurer's report. The financial statement for the year ended 31.3.1997 showed that income had been £18,211 and expenditure £19,126. Opening credit balance was £5,221, closing credit balance was £3,332. The membership of ICCL stood at 370 - an increase of 10 on the previous year. As ever, the debt due to our generous funders, Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, was acknowledged. Noreen Byrne The key-note address was given by Noreen Byrne, Chairperson of the National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI). Ms. Byrne very much welcomed the opportunity to speak at the ICCL AGM as she felt it was important that the whole issue of women's rights is not seen as the preserve of one group of organisations. It was important that the whole debate on women's' rights continues to be 'mainstreamed' otherwise only limited progress can be made. She also felt it was important that rights are not seen as 'gender neutral'. It was essential that strategies be developed to identify the rights of men, women, children, adults, people of different classes, nationalities etc. She believed that the whole notion of women's rights as human rights has been very useful in the development of individual rights in parts of the world where rights are less developed. Ms. Byrne noted that often change comes about for pragmatic reasons and not because of the justice of the specific case being made. She cited as an example the evolution of equal pay which has its roots in economic pragmatism. Broadly, society may feel that it is sympathetic to the notion of rights but often this is very conditional, a case in point being the widespread hostility to Travellers and refugees. It was important to challenge the notion that women's rights had "gone too far". Ms. Byrne stressed that there was still a long way to go before women can be guaranteed and are able to exercise their equal rights. The view that women's rights are "sorted out" was one widely held in the political parties. Rather than reacting defensively to that notion, it was important to firstly ask why that is a view so widely held and secondly to rectify the situation. Ms. Byrne explained that the approach of the NWCI is two-pronged. Firstly, it encourages and supports women's organisations at every level. Secondly, it targets the role of women as decision makers in bringing about change. It was essential that women were at the heart of the decision making process in this country. Lobbying was simply not enough because "once the door is closed we lose control of the issues". The negotiations in respect to Partnership 2000 were instructive in this regard. The NWCI had focused on three main issues: children; women's access to training through the live register and the valuing of women's unpaid work. This had proved effective in getting agreement in Partnership 2000. NWCI had learned how business is done within the system and it was important to find allies to expand opportunities for further development. Identifying 'common cause' was important and could be found in unlikely sources. The Conference of Religious in Ireland (CORI) is currently one of the most progressive voices in relation to social justice in this country. NWCI had recently undertaken research to obtain the views of political parties and other influencing agencies in this society. Many of the views coincided with NWCI, but that was no guarantee of delivery - "getting them to deliver is our job." Despite apparent consensus on issues, progress has been patchy, the best example of this was the fact that the long promised equality legislation had yet to be enacted. Despite the 'nodding heads', much work needed to be done on the following issues: 1. Open access to training programmes; 2. Pensions for women working full-time in the home; 3 Support for carers; 4. A national children's policy framework. NWCI had initiated a monitoring system to check the actions of the political parties on women's issues. The key-note address was followed by a wide-ranging discussion. Motions/New Executive One motion was passed calling for the establishment of an independent complaints body to be set up to examine complaints against the legal profession/s. The following were elected to the ICCL Executive Committee for 1997-98. (Officer positions in brackets - officers elected at Executive Committee:meeting of 3.7.1997): Ivana Bacik (Hon. Co-Secretary), Teresa Blake, Ronan Brady, Aileen Donnelly (Co-Chairperson), Michael Farrell (Co-Chairperson), Michael Finucane (Hon. Co-Secretary), David Joyce, Val Keaveney, David Lass, Grainne Malone (Hon. Co-Treasurer), David McConnell (Hon. Co- Treasurer), Malachy Murphy, Melissa Murray, Siobhan Ni Chulachain (Vice Chairperson), John O'Dowd (Vice Chairperson).   ICCL Sub-Committees Below is an update on the work of the various ICCL sub-committees. Any member who wishes to become involved in any of the sub- committees listed below should contact the office. Censorship sub-committee The censorship sub-committee meets once a month to discuss issues relating to censorship in Ireland. The committee is currently working on a report on reform of the Irish censorship laws. (Convenor: David Lass.) Criminal Justice sub-committee The Criminal Justice sub-committee is currently working on the right to silence, mandatory sentencing and the implementation of the seven day detention law. A briefing paper on the Right to Silence will be published shortly. (Convenor: Michael Finucane.) Education sub-committee The ICCL Education Programme for Transition Year is presently running in two Dublin schools: Malahide Community School and MacDara's Community College, Templeogue. A number of other schools have expressed an interest in running the programme after Christmas. The education sub-committee has worked particularly hard over the last two years to get the programme up and running and in drafting a teachers guide and resource list for the programme. Frank Cleary convenor of the sub-committee has met with representatives from the Blackrock Teachers Centre - a transition year support group - and other bodies in his attempts to interest other schools in the programme. International Treaties sub-committee A number of international conventions that Ireland is a party to are due to be reviewed by UN committees very shortly. ICCL has affiliated to Children's Rights Alliance (CRA) by way of supporting that body's work on the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. CRA has published its submission on Ireland's report entitled, 'Small Voices, Vital Rights'. Ireland's report is due to examined by the UN in January 1998. The ICCL also hopes to make a submission under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Ireland's report on CEDAW is due to be reviewed by the UN also in January 1998. The main work of the International Treaties sub-committee in 1998 will be the drafting of a comprehensive shadow report to Ireland's second report under the terms of the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights (ICCPR). In 1993, ICCL submitted a detailed report on Ireland's first report and this submission proved to be one of the most important ICCL activities in recent years, setting out as it did a detailed agenda for change in a wide variety of human rights areas. It must be acknowledged that important changes have come about since 1993 in a large number of areas. It is to be hoped the ICCL's submission on Ireland's second report will as influential as the first one. (Convenor: Teresa Blake.) Finance sub-committee While ICCL has maintained a good public profile and has undertaken a considerable amount of work in a number of areas over the last few years, the financial situation remains parlous. ICCL is greatly indebted to the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT) for a number of generous grants since 1992. We are in receipt of another grant from the JRCT for 1997-98 but we need to greatly expand our funding base. With this in mind, a Finance sub-committee has been set up to organise fund raising activity and make submissions to other funding bodies. The committee would particularly welcome members who have experience in the area of fund-raising. Mental Health sub-committee ICCL notes that the Mental Health Bill is included in the Government's legislation programme. Given this, and the fact that a number of members have expressed an interest in working on this issue, it is an opportune time to re-convene the Mental Health sub-committee. The first task of this committee will be to examine the white paper and to draw up ideas for an ICCL submission. The first meeting of this committee should take place sometime in November. Women's Committee The Women's Committee has been working on the report of the very successful 'Women's Rights as Human Rights' conference. The report will be launched at a reception in the Mansion House on 9.12.1997. National and international speakers will be in attendance. The Women's Committee is also supporting a Women's Aid initiative to highlight all forms of violence against women. Two weeks of activities are planned starting with a picket at the Dail on 25.11.1997. (Convenor: Melissa Murray)