Prepared by the Dominican Justice Office

1^st February 2016

I have included links to relevant material – please copy and paste directly into your browser.

• Report on the Protection Process in Ireland: Ask politicians for their position on the recommendations of Report of the Working Group on Direct Provision (full title is ‘Working Group to Report to Government Working Group on the Protection Process on Improvements to the Protection Process, including Direct Provision and Supports to Asylum Seekers’), which was published in June 2015. The recommendations have yet to be implemented. The full report is available to read here:

http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Report%20to%20Government%20on%20Improvements%20to%20the%20Protection%20Process,%20including%20Direct%20Provision%20and%20Supports%20to%20Asylum%20Seekers.pdf/Files/Report%20to%20Government%20on%20Improvements%20to%20the%20Protection%20Process,%20including%20Direct%20Provision%20and%20Supports%20to%20Asylum%20Seekers.pdf

A summary of the report is available to read here:

http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Executive%20Summary%20of%20the%20Report%20to%20Government%20on%20Improvements%20to%20the%20Protection%20Process……pdf/Files/Executive%20Summary%20of%20the%20Report%20to%20Government%20on%20Improvements%20to%20the%20Protection%20Process……pdf

The Dominican Justice Office believes that the full implementation of the recommendations of the Working Group is the first step towards making critical improvements to the protection process for people seeking asylum in Ireland.

• Enacting Hate Crime Legislation: ENAR Ireland (The Irish Network against Racism) has launched a ‘Love Not Hate’ calling on the government to enact the Criminal Law (Hate Crime) Bill immediately to protect minorities in Ireland. Ireland, unlike other EU Countries, has no hate crime legislation. As explained on the ENAR website:

“Enacting Hate Crime Legislation would place us among the majority of countries in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the European and common law countries. It would help Ireland meet its European Union and International obligations.

We need to send a clear message that racism and hate have no place in our communities and that our society should be inclusive of all. We must break the silence on hate crime, encourage people to report it, and find effective ways to address all forms of racism and prejudice.”

As well as asking politicians to support the enactment of the Bill, you can sign a petition asking the Minister for Justice and Equality Frances Fitzgerald to respond to this issue here: https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/love-not-hate-unite-to-legislate-against-hate-crime and print out a template letter for your elected representative here: http://enarireland.org/hate-crime-letter-template-to-politicians/

More information and a very good video about this legislation are available on the ENAR Ireland website here: http://enarireland.org/hatecrime/