The Government has told the
UN that it is reviewing the
Constitution in a range of areas, including the family, the place of women in
the 
home, and the current blasphemy provision.
In its submission to the
UN’s Universal Periodic Review
(UPR), the Government says it intends to “convene a Constitutional
Convention to consider the need for comprehensive constitutional reform”. This commitment is in the Programme for Government.
The UPR is a
review of how well each member-state of the UN is abiding by its human rights
commitments under a range of UN conventions and treaties.
The UPR is conducted
by the UN Human Rights Council and Ireland appears before the Council in
October. The Iona Institute made its own submission to the Council and it focusses on the area of freedom of conscience and religion.
In its submission to the Council, Ireland says
its review of the Constitution
would examine “provision for same-sex marriage; amendment of the clauses
on women in the home and insertion of a clause to encourage greater
participation of women in public life; and removal of the offence of blasphemy
from the Constitution”.
The submission also refers to the rights of
“transgendered” persons.
It says that the “acquired gender” of such people is “currently recognised in
many official dealings with the State, such as the provision of passports,
driving licences and in social welfare, healthcare and revenue matters”.
The submission adds that an advisory group was
established last year to advise on further legal recognition of transgender
persons and that this group was “expected to submit its report to the Minister
for Social Protection shortly”.
The Government’s report also
states that “a
referendum on Children’s Rights is a priority”.
It says that “inequalities on the gender ground still exist” and
that [w]orkplace gender discrimination continues to be reported annually”.
In response to this, it says that the Government has significantly expanded
childcare services “to support the childcare needs of women who are in
employment, education or training”.
