Focus 102

ROTTEN TRADE DEAL

FRACKING BAN Is the fracking ban in Ireland everything that it seems? We hear from someone who thinks it is not all it’s cracked up to be.

RIGHT TO WORK CETA trade deal goes to the heart of food politics in Ireland, undermining any possible democratic control of production.

> ANALYSIS PAGE 2

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> TRADE PAGE 7

Supreme Court unanimously finds the ban on asylum seekers taking up work is unconstitutional.

>HUMAN RIGHTS PAGE 8

ACTION FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE. January 2018 | Published By Comhlámh | ISSUE 102

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Cerrejón coal mine in La Guajira, Colombia Photo Credits: Leny Olivera

ALDO ORELLANA LÓPEZ Journalist, researcher and activist.

Winning the struggle.

Local democracy and radical consultation has power to halt mining giants

SIAN COWMAN Democracy Center Bolvia In March 2017, the town of Cajamarca in Colombia s top p e d t h e C a n a d ia n mining giant Anglo Gold Ashanti in its tracks. Anglo Gold had planned to build one of the biggest gold mines in Latin America in their territory. Locals organised a ‘popular consultation’ – a community vote on whether to allow the mine or not. 98% of those who voted rejected the mine. Local and central government has been obliged to respect the results of the vote, and the mine has not gone ahead.

U n d e r C o l o m b i a ’s 1 9 9 1 con st it ut ion, t he p e ople a re a l lowed to vote on issues of ‘n a t i o n a l , d e p a r t m e n t a l , o r municipa l ’ interest. Once t he correct procedures are followed, the results of the vote are binding.

T he r ig ht to hold popu la r consultations has been exercised by many towns and municipalities in

Colombia in the past year on issues to do with the extraction of fossil fuels and minerals. This is surely to do with the fact that there are currently 8,880 mining concessions in the country (that is not including oil and gas extraction). Unfortunately, the exploitation of fossil fuels and minerals has accelerated since the peace process - areas that were previously controlled by guerrilla groups FARC and ELN are now being appropriated by multinationals seeking natural resource concessions.

With this panorama, popular consultations are a powerful tool that allows people to protect their resources, but are labour-intensive.

‘It was a real struggle as a collective of building with the community the process of informing people of the risks [of mining] and the social and environmental impacts,’ explained Donaldo Larrota from the Environmental Collective of the town of Arvelaes, in interview with Focus. Arvelaes successfully banned mining and fossil fuel

extraction in June of this year.

Central government is looking for a way to take the steam (and the constitutional legality) out of the consultations. However, even if they did not carry legal weight, popular consultations can build community consensus a ga i n st e x t r ac t ive projects a nd send a strong message to politicians and multinationals seek ing to exploit n at u r a l re s ou rc e s (much like the county council fracking bans i n Irela nd sent a strong message and helped paved the way towards a national ban).

to stop the popular consultations, but t he pro c e s s e s a nd t he movements are going to continue.’

These victories don’t come without sacrifice. The work is not easy, and the organizers run many risks to their physical and mental i n t e g r i t y. I n Colombia, which has one of the highest rates of murders of environmental and land defenders in the world, one of t hose risk s is losi ng you r life.

“They need our support in this, and our solidarity. There is no middle ground in the debate.”

John Jairo Villa, from the Ecologica l Col lect ive of t he town of Pijao, said as much: ‘The central government is not happy that municipalities are making decisions over their own territories… they’re planning a law

As in many env ironmenta l st r ug g les, yout h a re lead i ng.

As Larrota said, ‘it’s up to us youth to do the work of these consultations. We carry the weight of the future of our territories.’

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The indigenous Bolivians Fabian Gil and Marqueza Teco travelled to Bonn during COP23 to denounce the government of Evo Morales in front of the International Tribunal for the Rights of Nature for violation of the rights of Mother Earth in their territory.

Gil and Teco represent communities in the ecological reserve known as TIPNIS (Indigenous territory and national park of Isoboro Secure), through which the Bolivian government a i ms to bu i ld a major hig hway.

Covering over a million hectares TIPNIS is a protected area for the incredible biodiversity it contains. It is home to hundreds of indigenous families from 69 communities from the Moxeño, Yuracaré y Chimán peoples.

These communities have pointed out that opening a highway through the national park will result in a great loss to its ecosystem due to deforestation, and because it will lead to further exploitation in order to cultivate coca. “These activities could put at serious risk one of the most important ecological lungs that Bolivia has”, said Gil, who is president of the TIPNIS. Earlier this year Bolivia’s President Morales annulled Law 180 which had declared TIPNIS ‘untouchable’, prohibiting the construction of highways and other types of extractive projects. This Law had been approved in 2011 following a huge march by indigenous protesters from across the country, and signified a victory against the Morales government – a government seen internationally as a champion for the promotion of the rights of Mother Earth and indigenous peoples.

Now, with 180 annulled, the government has a green light to construct the highway. continued on page 2

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FOCUS ACTION FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE

FOCUS

ACTION FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE

NEWS

Anti fracking campainers celebrating outside the Dáil | Photo credit: @Love_Leitrim

EST. 1978

Focus Magazine is Ireland’s leading magazine on global development issues. Since 1978, Focus has been making links between the situation in Ireland and in the Global South. It aims to provide alternative views to those expressed in mainstream media. It challenges assumptions, and promotes understanding and action on development issues among a broad public.

Focus is produced by a members’ editorial group. Thanks to Jill McArdle, Sian Cowman, James O Donovan and Sive Bresnihan for this issue.

To receive copies to distribute please contact info@comhlamh.org Comhlamh is a signatory to the Dochas Code On Images and Messages. Feedback welcome to info@comhlamh.org

Fractures in gas ban?

Meg Rybicki asks if the recent fracking ban is all it’s cracked up to be?

MEG RYBICKI Anti fracking activist

On alert, the communities of TIPNIS, in alliance with ecologist groups and other indigenous peoples who are also opposing extractive projects, have announced their commitment to resistance in their territory and are denouncing internationally the extractivist policies of Evo Morales’ administration. What we are seeing is en emergent movement exposing the profound contradictions between the discourse of protection for Mother Earth which Morales has espoused (he is himself the country’s first elected indigenous President) and the model of extractive development being pursued. The situation is creating territorial conflicts with indigenous populations in various parts of the country, in particular where oil, gas and large-scale hydroelectric projects are present.

Marqueza Teco, representing the women of TIPNIS, has said: “We are making this public denouncement so that the whole worlds knows what the government is doing here, but also to call you to the defence of TIPNIS and our territory against these projects.”

Aldo Orellana Lopez is a Bolivian journalist, researcher and activist.

Interested in social justice issues across the globe?

Fancy working with others to help share news and views on struggles for equality?

Over 2018, Focus editorial group wants to wider our pool of writers across Ireland and the rest of the world.

Email your interest to info@comhlamh.org

The recent ban on onshore hydraulic fracturing for shale gas in Ireland was seen as a resounding victory by many individuals and groups in the wider anti fracking campaign.

Under pressure from Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, and Sinn Fein, all amendments to include a ban on offshore exploration and fracking were unfortunately defeated.

Te r m i n a l s for fracked gas being built in Ireland The battle grounds have now been re-drawn. A grassroots group, ‘Not Here, The actual “ban” came about after six Not Anywhere’, has recently tackled Minister years of campaigning, when a Bill proposed for Communications, Climate Action

by Fine Gael TD for Sligo/Leitrim, Tony and Environment Denis Naughten about McLoughlin, received unanimous support the proposal to build an LNG (Liquefied from all parties at its various stages in the Natural Gas) terminal in the Port of Cork, Dáil, and was then passed on May 31st 2017. which would receive fracked gas from Texas, in partnership with an American One of the most prominent Compa ny, Nex t Decade.

“This is a groups in the battle against Next Decade is an LNG question onshore unconventional development company listed that many activists as being worth over $1 Billion g a s e x t r a c t ion , L ove have been Leitrim, applauded the on the stock exchange. trying to work passing of the bill loudly through for a nd vociferously f rom T he hy pocrisy of on some time ” t he v isitors’ ga l ler y i n the one hand facilitating a the Dáil. Love Leitrim is ban on onshore fracking closely affiliated with Fine in the Republic of Ireland, Gael stalwart, Eddie Mitchell, a campaign only to import fracked gas from the USA, ma nager for Tony McLough lin TD. and therefore cause environmental and social damage to communities around the Texas/Mexico border is staggering, Have we really banned fracking? but not surprising. The ban, celebrated Others, including Richard Boyd Barrett, in politically affiliated groups, received a People Before Profit TD, saw the bill as much more muted welcome in the network placating the oil and gas industry, as it did of grassroots anti-fracking collectives. not include banning fracking offshore. Mr Boyd Barrett, quoted in The Irish Times, Local impacts of LNG production claimed that FG and FF had made a political Affected communities in the Rio Grande decision that they did not want the ban to in Texas say that as the LNG would have to extend offshore, “because our friends in the be exported from the Port of Brownsville oil and gas industry would not like that.” in South Texas, irreversible environmental damage would be caused in the construction People Before P r o f i t , of the infrastructure and industrial facilities Independents4Change, and the Green capable of coping with such a massive Party had inserted amendments into the project. The region contains an area of Bill to include a ban on fracking off-shore. natural wildlife habitat that has been

painstakingly restored over the past decades.

The R io Grande LNG Port would require the construction of one of the largest pipelines ever to seek a permit from the federal government. All natural gas pipelines have the potential for leakages and explosions, and landowners will have no choice as to whether they want or approve of a potentially dangerous gas pipeline crossing their properties, as if necessary their land will be seized under eminent domain.

The infrastructure required would also include massive industrial plants spewing out pollutants including greenhouse gases. Dredging the basins to create deep ports for massive ships to dock and turn, would result in earth being dumped onto the wetlands. This would result in polluted runoff, not to mention the gas flaring from the LNG facilities, creating airborne pollution, methane leakage, and an extreme hazard for seabirds.

A pr ice we a re w i l l i ng to pay?

The cost of such “energy security” for Ireland comes at a high price for the communities in the Rio Grande. The ban on fracking in Ireland has therefore turned out to be a poisoned chalice, a double edged sword, and an environmentally sensitive issue. It will see seasoned and experienced campaigners take on a new challenge, and one that they have had six years to prepare for (almost two decades if we include the brave veterans of the Shell to Sea campaign).

We cannot accept LNG termina ls capable of importing over 3 million cubic tonnes of liquefied natural gas (much of it fracked) from communities in the USA that will be devastated by this process, if we cannot accept fracking in Ireland.

Keep Ireland LNG Free.

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THE STATE OF CORPORATE POWER

Credit: Polyp.org.uk

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Business Trumps Human Rights Ireland’s ‘National Plan on Business and Human Rights.’ A weak, ineffectual sop to powerful interests?

SHANE DARCY Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway

That companies might harm human rights is nothing new. It is the unprecedented growth in corporate size, mobility and power over recent decades and the attendant demands for resources and returns that has led to human rights being increasingly pushed aside.

States have often been willing partners in this. The World Cup in Qatar in 2022 is a case in point. According to Amnesty International, companies involved in the construction of stadiums and infrastructure for the competition have “subjected their workers to systematic labour abuse”.

Hundreds of workers have already died, yet Qatar has dragged its heels in making the necessary labour reforms.

Against this backdrop, various United Nations human rights bodies have been working for several years on developing means of ensuring business respect for human rights – preparing the UN Guiding Principles on business and human rights, working towards a new international treaty, and questioning States on how they ensure that companies domiciled in their territory respect human rights throughout their operations.

When Ireland appeared before the Human Rights Committee in Geneva in 2014, it was asked to provide details on how it was implementing the UN Guiding Principles and “whether allegations of the complicity of Irish construction companies involved in preparations for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar in alleged human rights violations were being investigated”.

The Government’s response was that it had not received any information that Irish companies were complicit in such abuses, and that it was developing a national plan “in an attempt to prevent human rights abuses by Irish companies operating abroad”.

Over three years later, and the Irish Government has finally published it’s National Plan on Business and Human Rights. The document was launched by Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Coveney at a low-key event at Iveagh House this month. Its mission statement is:

The Irish Government has taken a superficial and lighttouch approach to business and human rights, one that favours promotion and encouragement of voluntary undertakings by business, rather than deploying the legal tools at the State’s disposal for ensuring business respect for human rights. Many civil society recommendations have not been taken up, while the approach favoured by Irish business organisations is largely reflected in the National Plan.

To promote responsible business practices at home and overseas by all Irish business enterprises in line with Ireland’s commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights globally and to being one of the best “The Irish countries in the world in which to do business.

This emphasis is telling, as the National Plan indicates a clear preference for a soft promotiona l approach to business and human rights, rather than undertaking the introduction of any mandatory legal requirements in this area as other countries have done.

Government has taken a superficial and light-touch approach to business and human rights”

The new commitments being undertaken by the Government include commissioning a comprehensive assessment of the current legislative and regulatory framework in Ireland and establishing a ‘Business and Human Rights implementation group’ drawn from government departments, business and civil society which will provide practical advice to companies, encourage and support them to undertake human rights due diligence, and promote engagement with certain human rights processes.

The UN Guiding Principles on business and human rights, which the National Plan is supposed to implement, require that States take “appropriate steps to prevent, investigate, punish and redress” human rights abuses by business enterprises “through effective policies, legislation, regulations and adjudication”.

The only allusions to prevention and remedy in the National Plan are in relation to the comprehensive assessment and the seemingly overlapping pledge to review access to remedy for overseas victims of abuses by Irish companies. There is no clear commitment to take action on foot of these reviews.

The Minister explained of the need to get “buy-in” from business for this endeavour.

This excessive deference to the private sector is disheartening for NGOs who contributed most to the Department’s consultations, in the hope of a robust and progressive national plan. It is also a ref lection of the power differentials at play in this context.

Dr Sha ne Da rc y is a senior lecturer at t he Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway. He also runs the Business and Human Rights in Ireland blog.

FIND OUT MORE For more information on business and human rights check out these sites: Corporatewatch.org TheCornerHouse.org.uk BusinessHumanRightsIreland.wordpress.com

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GLOBAL

FOCUS ACTION FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE

The Happy Planet Index An economic measure that integrates health, equality and sustainability.

JAMES O’DONOVAN Comhlámh member

The Happy Planet Index is produced by the New Economics Foundation (NEF), a community centred independent think tank. The index is calculated by taking the average well-being and longevity of a population, multiplied by a measure that factors in how equally well-being and longevity are distributed across a population, and then divides the result by each country’s ecological footprint.

The Index provides a compass to guide the development of nations, and shows that it is possible to live good lives without costing the Earth. NEF comments that while politicians “consistently prioritise economic growth as the central objective of government...Doing so has led to short-termism, deteriorating social conditions and paralysis in the face of climate change”.

Inequality of outcomes: People across the world are experiencing the impact of growing inequalities – both in terms of the underlying failures of social justice, and the negative effect it has on other outcomes. The 2016 Happy Planet Index adjusts the average wellbeing and life expectancy downwards to take into account inequalities in each of these outcomes (in each country).

Ecological Footprint: This is the average amount of land needed, per head of population, to sustain a typical country’s consumption patterns. It includes the land required to provide the renewable resources people use (food, fibre and fuel), the area occupied by infrastructure, and the area required to absorb CO2 emissions. Crucially it is a measure of consumption, not production.

“The concept of “living well” is not synonymous with the models of economic growth and consumerism that economic development brings about”

On t he Happy Pla net Index t he most successful countries are those where people live long and happy lives at little cost to the environment.

The top ten countries in the index looks very different to the World Happiness Report (http://worldhappiness. report/), which usually has the Nordic countries on top because that report fails to take sustainability into account.

Under st a nd i n g How t he I nde x i s C a lc u l ate d Experienced wellbeing: How satisfied the residents of each country feel with life overall, on a scale from zero to ten, based on data collected as part of the Gallup World Poll.

Life expectancy: The average number of years a person is expected to live in each country based on data collected by the United Nations. Life expectancy is commonly used as an overall indicator of the standard of health in a country.

This means that, for example, the CO2 associated with the manufacture of a mobile phone made in China but bought by someone living in Chile, will count towards Chile’s Ecological Footprint.

Ecological Footprint is expressed using a standardized unit: global hectares. A global hectare (gha) is a biologically productive hectare with world average productivity in a given year. You can read more about this useful indicator at https:// www.footprintnetwork.org/our-work/ecological-footprint/ NEF have produced an interactive map where you can see how each country does for the overall happy planet index as well as for the individual index components. You can read brief country assessments and for a few of the countries you can read a more detailed case study that gives some insight into effective policies and problems in that country.

Further Information NEF have an informative TED talk where Nic Marks asks “why we measure a nation’s success by its productivity instead of by the happiness and well-being of its people?”

Richard Wilkinson gives a fascinating TED talk called, ‘How

Inequality harms societies’ where he reviews the data showing how societies that are more equal – with a smaller income gap between rich and poor – are happier AND healthier than societies with greater disparities in the distribution of wealth. https://www.ted.com/talks/richard_wilkinson

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GENDER

Supports & Services Helping people navigate overseas volunteering

As the Irish Association of Volunteers and Development Workers, our vision is of volunteers and development workers working in solidarity for a just, equitable and sustainable world.

We work to promote responsible, responsive international volunteering.

Check out the Supports and Services section of our website www.comhlamh.org

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FOCUS ACTION FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE GLOBAL STRUGGLES

Farming hope and learning more Critical reflections from a Comhlámh member on a recent solidarity trip to the West Bank.

Solidarity activists from Ireland visiting the West Bank on an educational tour| Image: Janet Horner JANET HORNER Comhlámh member This year’s Joint Advocacy Initiative for Palestine programme was joined by six Comhlámh members and activists for ten days of olive picking, tours and talks around the West Bank.

Though most of us had a prior involvement with Palestinian activism, the trip was an opportunity for us to learn more and seek to understand. The annual olive harvesting trip is organised by the YWCA and YMCA Palestine, inviting people from around the world to support Palestinian farmers with their harvest, to learn and to express solidarity with Palestinians living under occupation.

The West Bank is unarguably a special place; around almost every turn is a site which brings back memories from childhood bible tales and the landscape, although marred by conflict and the ugliness of the apartheid wall, is stunning and immense.

It set a striking backdrop for our group to explore the region and to engage in some Comhlámh-style critical reflection on the complex and tragic nature of the occupation.

There is much to be said about what we saw, learnt and experienced while we were there. And even more to be said by those with an expertise in the subject and, most especially, by the Palestinians themselves. However, I have two lingering thoughts from my time in Palestine to share here which I hope are worthy of repetition, even if they are not new.

Firstly, among a group of many diverse nationalities I

was struck by how the uniqueness of our Irish history gives us valuable experience of peace and conflict and a unique perspective on the Palestinian cause.

only more authentic but also most useful when it is routed in a knowledge of our own history and a willingness to share our collective experiences.

Through my work with YWCA Ireland, we partnered with Secondly, I was particularly struck by a phrase used by Loren YWCA Palestine to bring young Palestinian women to Northern McGrail from the YWCA Palestine, who described the women Ireland in June 2016 together with young British and of Palestine as “trapped between the hammer of patriarchy Irish women to learn from one another and the anvil of occupation”. One of the core areas “It is often and to work in collaboration on enhancing of work of the YWCA Palestine is promoting UN the women who the role of women in peace-building.

Security Council resolution 1325 which relates to hold families and women, peace and security. communities together A small delegation of Palestinian women taught us about the history of during conflict and who The resolution recognises women’s dual provide the grassroots Palestine and their personal experiences vulnerability in conflict – vulnerable to men’s foundation of occupation. In turn they were violence, both political and domestic, which is to peace” fascinated by the similarities with their known to increase during political conflict and own context which they encountered from their exclusion from the politics which can in Belfast – a landscape dominated by make or break a peace. Further it recognises the separation walls, the struggle for justice from the strength which women frequently display as peacebuilders. community to the political level, a tragic, brutal and ongoing history of deep division and conflict, and the vital importance of It is often the women who hold families and communities community work as the foundation for all hope of peace. together during conf lict and who provide the grassroots foundation to peace. It has also been found that peace agreements Before leaving Belfast, one young Palestinian walked along last longer when women are involved in their formulation. the coastline at Newcastle – something she had never done in Therefore, it is not just fairness which should motivate the her own country and remarked that the trip had left her with a inclusion of women in peacebuilding and advocacy but also a sense of hope and possibility for peace and justice beyond the recognition that they are an essential part of the success of the occupation – albeit a peace and justice which is likely to be even process. more complex than the conflict itself.

No peace or liberation can be considered genuine if it does It would be irresponsible and even disrespectful to overstate not place women in a central role. the comparison between Ireland and Palestine but my short time in Palestine did cause me to reflect that our solidarity is not

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FOCUS ON CETA

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Rotten deal for Irish Food CETA plans go right to the core of democractic control of our own lives JILL MCARDLE Comhlámh Trade Justice Group.

However, this deal includes an agreement to cooperate on harmonizing regulations with Canada. The chapter on “regulatory cooperation” is very similar to previous examples, such as in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which led to a lowering of standards in food production and animal welfare in Canada.

“big meat” and dairy companies emit more greenhouse gas emissions than Germany. Large scale farming’s monoculture model is also responsible for a devastating loss in biodiversity, which is essential for a sustainable food supply. The quality and sustainability of our soil and water are also under threat from this unsustainable mode of production.

CETA threatens our right to know where our food comes from. In 2008/2009, Canada and Mexico (on behalf of the North American Meat Industry) used the World Trade Organization to force the US to overturn a law on mandatory country of origin labelling. Despite 90% of US consum“Ireland has ers supporting the law, the WTO concluded huge potential that it was “protectionist” and violated trade to be a producer rules. CETA’s chapter on “technical barriers of truly green, to trade” could open such measures up to locally produced, challenge from Canada.

Why are we signing up to an agreement that gives big corporations the power to influence our food safety rules and could put many of our small farms out of business? This is just one of many questions we must ask about this deal, questions our representatives must answer before they move forward with any vote.

A major trade deal between the EU and Canada, known as CETA, is currently in the process of being ratified across Europe. Ireland has not yet ratified the deal, it will have to pass a vote in the Dáil to get through. Both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail are fully in support of CETA so far, despite serious questions remaining about its implications for Ireland.

Take food and farming as an example. Across Europe and in Ireland there are movements to demand healthier food and more sustainable food systems. Interest in locally sourced, organic and agro-ecologically produced food is growing every day. What we need now is better public policy to support local markets and sustainable food systems. However, the new rules proposed under CETA threaten to undermine these food and farm movements.

sustainable food”

CETA puts our ability to maintain high food standards at risk.

Currently many food products from Canada cannot be imported into the EU because they don’t meet our high standards. Practices that are permitted in Canada, like the surface treatment of meat with acetic acid, the use of hormones in beef production, the use of GMOs and chlorination of chicken are restricted in the EU because of the Precautionary Principle.

Ireland has huge potential to be a producer of truly green, locally produced, sustainable food. However, under this deal, our smallscale Irish farmers would be in competition with industrial agribusinesses, whose business model depends on lower standards. Many of our small farms could disappear, replaced with factory farms, as happened in Canada after NAFTA. Even right next door in the UK there are now over 800 industrial mega farms.

Do we want Ireland to go down that road?

FIND OUT MORE Check out “CETA: the implications for Ireland”, a briefing prepared by the Comhlámh Trade Justice Group. It includes questions to ask your representatives about the deal.

Want to get involved with the Comhlámh Trade Justice Group?

Email us at tradejustice@comhlamh.org

Industrial farming not only threatens our local food markets, but our environment too. A recent study found that the 20 largest

Increasing concerns being raised abut the impact of CETA on agriculture and food standards

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FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT TO WORK ‘Asylum seekers meeting under the umbrella of MASI, Dublin, October 2017. Photo credit: Liam Baker

LOCAL & GLOBAL DOCUMENTING SOLIDARITY

Young, Paperless and Powerful (YPP) is a creative youth project for undocumented young people.

They are a group of undocumented activists who campaign for a fair pathway to papers for children and young people without legal status in Ireland.

MRCI estimates that there are between 20,000 and 26,000 undocumented migrants - including children and families - living and working in Ireland SIVE BRESNIHAN Comhlámh Member On 16th July 2008, a Rohingya man known to the courts as ‘NHV’ arrived in Ireland and applied for refugee status. ‘NHV’s experiences of this country’s asylum system would eventually drive him to take a case against the State and, with support from a tenacious legal team, secure a groundbreaking legal ruling on the right to work for Ireland’s ‘non-citizens’. However, concerns are now growing that the ruling will be muddied by government, and that little or no change will materialise for those denied the right to dignity through work.

In 2013, 5 years after his application for refugee status, ‘NHV’ was still in the direct provision system. He was subsisting in an isolated direct provision centre in rural Monaghan and struggling with depression as a consequence of empty days, forced idleness and no reprieve in sight. In May of 2013 he was offered some kind of employment in the centre, an offer that he jumped at. He duly applied to the Minister of Justice for permission to take up the offer but the Minister refused, citing section 9 (4) of the then Refugees Act (subsequently the International Protection Act) which absolutely prohibits asylum seekers from seeking or entering employment in Ireland.

When set against his lengthy ‘wait’ of not months but years in the system, the injustice of this preclusion was clear to ‘NHV’ and he did not let the matter rest. With support from lawyer Michael Lynn he commenced legal proceedings against the Minister, challenging the interpretation of section 9 (4) and seeking a declaration of the incompatibility of the section with the Charter of the European Union, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Constitution. As part of his case NHV spoke of how he had experienced an ‘almost complete loss of autonomy’ in direct provision. He argued that being allowed to work was vital to his personal dignity and ‘sense of self-worth’.

What did the courts say? The Irish High Court ruled in favour of the Minister, and said that the ban on work was not unconstitutional. The Irish Court of Appeal said the same. ‘NHV’and his legal team pushed on however and, in April 2016, the Supreme Court granted leave to appeal the decision.

In this same period, after 8 years of suffering direct provision, ‘NHV’ was granted refugee status. The State moved in quickly to argue that the case was now ‘moot’ (not relevant) but Supreme Court Judge O’Donnell disagreed, stipulating that the claim was in substance a constitutional challenge and raised legal issues of ‘general public importance’.

In May of this year, a seven-judge Supreme Court (including Judge O’Donnell) unanimously found in favour of ‘NHV’, finding that the ban on asylum seekers looking for work was unconstitutional. In a ground-breaking ruling, the judgement focused on the extent of entitlement of non-citizens as ‘human persons’ to rely on Constitutional rights. It noted that ‘work is connected to the dignity and freedom of the individual’ something which the Constitution seeks to promote. As work is fundamentally connected to ‘dignity and freedom’, ruled the court, it cannot be withheld even from non-citizens. ‘A right to work,’ said Justice O’Donnell ‘at least in the sense of a freedom to work or seek employment, is a “part of the human personality”.

While powerful in essence, the ruling provided significant scope for the State to place limitations on the right to work for non-citizens, and this is where there are now growing concerns. MASI (Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland) a nd it s allies anticipate that the right to “As work is work will be so fundamentally narrowly conconnected to ‘dignity ceived as to and freedom’, ruled make little or the court, it cannot be no difference withheld even from nonto those who citizens” h ave a l r e a d y appealed ‘ f irstinstance decisions’ (the majority of asylum seekers). They also fear that for those few who are granted the right to work, access to the labour market will be restricted.

Considering the State’s record on these matters, such fears are well grounded. In the coming months there is every chance that the Minister will use what is in substance a significant court ruling borne of the courage and tenacity of ‘NHV’, to provide the shameful and punitive direct provision system with a veneer of ‘respectability’.

In the meantime, the five-judge court will make its own constitutional declaration on February 9th, irrespective of what progress the State has made towards addressing the court’s ruling. As well as this, MASI and its allies are appealing to the general public to

get behind their campaign for a genuine and unconditional #right2work. It is beyond time for this basic human right to dignity through work to materialise.

The now established constitutional right of asylum seekers to seek and enter employment in Ireland must be upheld.

DID YOU KNOW?

On November 20th, Universal Children’s Day, YPP held a solidarity demonstration with young undocumented people in Ireland and the US. Twin rallies were held in Dublin and New York to call on Congressman Peter King to stand up for undocumented young people and support a proposed DREAM Act (acronym for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minor Act) for undocumented young people in the US.

GOV’S STATISTICS CHALLENGED

The Taoiseach made some startling claims about homelessness in Ireland at Fine Gael’s National conference. Leo Varadkar suggested that homelessness in Ireland - recorded in October as 5,298 adults and 3,194 children “wasn’t as bad as other OECD countries.” In the last 12 weeks to the end of November, 7 people have died on the streets.

The number of rough sleepers on the street early December was recorded as 184, the highest on record and double that of winter 2015. Homelessness campaigner Fr Peter McVerry took issue with the Taoiseach’s statement. He arged that the figures the Taoiseach was using for other OECD countries wasn’t a like for like comparison because they included people “sofa surfing” and staying with their parents until they could afford accommodation of their own. He said “If we included those people in our figures then our homeless figures would be between 70,000 and 80,000.” More than ten times what the Irish state officially records.

CLIMATE JUSTICE FROM BOTTOM UP

The Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) and Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) have published

“Carbon Pricing - A Critical Perspective for Community Reistance” It addresses the big questions. What will the consequences be for people, our communities, humanity, ecosystems, habitat and all life? How will this transition away from fossil fuel extraction be organized within our respective communities? Download here http://bit.ly/2ngZimR