Cuts a ''scandal'' says UN expert
April 6th 2009.
Speaking at a major international conference in Dublin today, UN Human Rights Committee member Professor Michael O'Flaherty has decried what he described as the ''scandal'' of the government having made deep cuts to the budgets of the Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) and the Equality Authority, only weeks after the UN's top human rights body had recommended that the resources available to the IHRC be increased and its independence strengthened.
Professor O'Flaherty added that in his view, it ''beggers belief that the Government has failed to designate human rights protection and promotion as a charital purpose in the Charities Act 2009''
Professor O'Flaherty was speaking at 'Implementing Human Rights in a Time of Change: Facing up to the challenge under the International Covenant on Civila and Political Rights (ICCPR), a conference jointly organised by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT), and Free Legal Advice Centres (FLAC).