The European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) has appointed the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and University College Dublin’s School of Social Justice as the FRA’s new Raxen National Focal Point to monitor racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in Ireland.
Raxen National Focal Points are the FRA’s recognised national co-ordinators, contracted to manage an information network involving Government departments, research bodies, human rights and equality groups, NGOs and other social partners.
The ICCL/UCD consortium will be assisted by a panel of the country’s top academic experts, as well as the Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI). Based on information gathered through the network, the consortium will provide regular reports to the FRA on racism and related forms of intolerance in Ireland.
Speaking shortly after signing the Raxen contract with the FRA’s director Morten Kjaerum, ICCL director Mark Kelly said: “The ICCL greatly welcomes the decision of the FRA to place this critical monitoring function in genuinely independent hands.
“Racism is a mutating virus which, if unmonitored, can easily breed and spread. Keeping the FRA closely informed about developments in Ireland will maintain an international spotlight on emerging forms of intolerance which might otherwise prosper unchecked.”
Prof Kathleen Lynch, chair of Equality Studies in the School of Social Justice at UCD, added: “[We welcome] the opportunity to work with the ICCL in the independent, research-based monitoring of racism in Ireland.
“We will endeavour to use our research expertise, and that of our academic partners in UCC, UL and the UCD School of Sociology to enhance ways of informing the FRA of all forms of racism and xenophobia with a view to creating a truly inclusive and equal society in Ireland.”
