The Irish Government has prepared a 200 page draft report ahead of its appearance before the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The Committee monitors the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

No date has been fixed for the meeting as yet.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is to hold a consultation on Ireland’s report to the UN’s Committee next month.

The Covenant covers such areas as the right to work, to health, to form trade unions and to social security. It commits signatory nations to protect the family which is described as “the natural and fundamental group unit of society”. 

Last week, Ireland appeared before a hearing of the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva as part of what is called the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The Council monitors the implementation of UN human rights treaties.

Ireland was represented by the Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter.

The representatives from six countries pressed Ireland to legalise abortion, namely Germany, Denmark, Slovenia, Norway, Spain and the Netherlands. Denmark recommended legalising abortion in cases of rape, incest, or in “situations where the pregnancy puts the physical or mental health or wellbeing of the pregnant woman or a pregnant girl in danger”.

Mexico recommended that Ireland make contraceptive information “available and accessible” to “boys, girls and adolescents”.

Meanwhile, Finland, the Netherlands, and United Kingdom asked Ireland what it intended to do to give further recognition to non-marital, or what it called “modern, pluralist and inclusive family relationships” and how it intended to improve children’s rights.

The Swiss representative brought up Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act, which gives religious employers the right to take their ethos into consideration with hiring staff.

Egypt asked whether there was de facto religious discrimination in access to education in Ireland, while Uruguay recommended that we implement legislation to ban corporal punishment in the home. 

The Government, in its response to the UN’s report, accepted Mexico’s recommendation, while it said it would consider changing the constitutional definition of the family and amending Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act. 

The Government also said it would consider a recommendation by Uruguay to explicitly prohibit “any form of corporal punishment in the family”.

The Government rejected recommendations which suggested that it legalise abortion.