Crises in housing, homelessness and extreme poverty are violating economic, social and cultural rights in Ireland, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) has said.
In its fourth periodic review, which will be submitted to the United Nations, the IHREC has said a paradigm shift is needed in the State's approach to economic, social and cultural rights if it is to eradicate poverty, build up public service provision, and better respond to the needs of structurally vulnerable communities.
The State must move away from viewing rights as charitable, discretionary and commodities, and progress a rights-based model, the IHREC added.
It will tell the UN, which will assess Ireland's compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights, that it is concerned by the State's "continuing failure to address the root causes of the enduring crises in health, housing, poverty and the cost of living".
The State has "responded inadequately" to address such crises, "despite the country's economic development since the last periodic review in 2015," the IHREC said.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, member of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Noeline Blackwell, highlighted what she described as improvements in the area of women's reproductive rights.
"It is not a perfect situation in relation to the right to access abortion, because access is still a problem. But there is an improvement there.
"There's an improvement in parental leave and there are improvements around the domestic, sexual and gender-based violence sector where there were significant plans to improve, but still the refuges aren't there that people need and civil legal aid isn't there for people."
Ms Blackwell said if Ireland has committed to use all its available resources to ensure that its people receive their economic, social and cultural rights, "there is a significant distance to go".
"It looks like we're going so slowly or that we're going backwards," she added.
"We're not going forward enough in areas like adequate housing, adequate right to work and decent wages, adequate access to the health service, adequate access to education, particularly if you're poor," she said.
The IHREC called for leadership and brave decision-making from the State, "that acknowledges the lack of progress made so far ... and a determined ambition to materially improve the situation of many in our country that suffer inequality."
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