Your Guide to Human Rights and Asperger Syndrome 

Human Rights in the Irish Context

Ireland is a party to the European Convention on Human Rights (the provisions of which have been incorporated into Irish law), the Statute of the International Criminal Court, and a number of other international agreements.

The more widely known of these international agreements/treaties include:

• The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
• The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
• The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
• The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
• The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
• The Convention on the Rights of the Child
• The Convention relating to the Status of Refugees

Various Council of Europe agreements are also binding upon the State. These include:

• The Revised European Social Charter
• The European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or
• Degrading Treatment and Punishment, and
• The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
• As a member of the European Union, Ireland is also increasingly affected by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

A deeper and more detailed understanding of human rights in this context may be gained from the Human Rights Commission Acts, the Constitution of Ireland and relevant international agreements. (If you would like more information about these, please contact The Human Rights Commission for Ireland for more www.ihrc.ie).

The seven treaties above are agreements that the Irish state have accepted. Unlike the UN Declaration of Human Rights, these treaties are legally binding and by accepting them, the Irish government is obliged to promote and protect Human Rights at the national level.

These Treaties are monitored by panels of experts (known as Treaty Bodies) and the Irish government must regularly report back to them regarding how well the treaty provisions have been implemented since their last report. Some of the treaty bodies also have other functions and also accept complaints from individuals stating the government has not upheld their rights (more details of this can be found under the other area - What to do if you feel your rights have been violated, where to complain and how to make a case).

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