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Rights, Freedoms and Repression

Woman whose soup run fed 250 homeless in Dublin told to cease or face €300k fine 21:35 Feb 07 2 comments

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Anti-Empire

Rheinmetall Plans to Make 700,000 Artill... Thu Apr 25, 2024 04:03 | Anti-Empire

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Human Rights in Ireland

A Blog About Human Rights

UN human rights chief calls for priority action ahead of climate summit Sat Oct 30, 2021 17:18 | Human Rights

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Lockdown Skeptics

News Round-Up Thu Apr 25, 2024 00:31 | Will Jones
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

The Micromanagement of Speech in the Workplace is Out of Control Wed Apr 24, 2024 19:30 | Dr David McGrogan
Forget hate speech laws, says Dr David McGrogan. Speech in the workplace is already micromanaged in intolerable ways by employment law ? and it's getting worse.
The post The Micromanagement of Speech in the Workplace is Out of Control appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Who Was Responsible for the ?Look Them in the Eyes? Campaign? Wed Apr 24, 2024 17:32 | Dr Gary Sidley
We all remember the harrowing "Look them in the eyes" messaging campaign, aimed at terrifying the populace into compliance with Covid restrictions. Now, Dr. Gary Sidley exposes the people behind it.
The post Who Was Responsible for the “Look Them in the Eyes” Campaign? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

The French State is Now Little More Than a Smuggling Gang Wed Apr 24, 2024 15:37 | Will Jones
If the events of yesterday show anything it is that France doesn't want to stop the boats and the French state is now little more than a smuggling gang, says Patrick O'Flynn.
The post The French State is Now Little More Than a Smuggling Gang appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Wales to Drop Blanket 20mph Speed Limits Wed Apr 24, 2024 13:30 | Will Jones
Wales's blanket 20mph speed limits will be dropped by September, the nation?s new Labour Transport Secretary has said, after it was conceded they should never have been brought in. Turns out, 20 isn't plenty.
The post Wales to Drop Blanket 20mph Speed Limits appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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Voltaire Network

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Israel's complex relations with Iran, by Thierry Meyssan Wed Apr 24, 2024 05:25 | en

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The cost of war, by Manlio Dinucci Wed Apr 17, 2024 04:12 | en

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Ireland in breach of UN Forced Labour Convention

national | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis

Saturday February 20, 2016 10:07

by Vince McGreal

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In 1932, Ireland ratified the United Nations’ Convention Concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour (1930). The Convention defines forced labour as "all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.”
Eighty-four years later, Ireland is in breach of that convention.

In 2012, Pathways to Work policy statement, largely copied from the UK, was adopted and signed, among others, by Enda Kenny and Joan Burton. Apart from providing training and education for the unemployed, which have been available long before 2012, the activation system offers them not real jobs but year-long JobBridge “internships” and “apprenticeships” as cleaners and porters. Such offers of practically unpaid (a little more than one euro an hour) work disguised as training now cannot be refused, because they are backed up with sanctions: it can be either a cut of €44 from the weekly €188, or even the suspension of payments for up to nine weeks, which exposes people to starvation, hypothermia and debt. These are the penalties for not volunteering to do unpaid work for businesses, or an analogue of community service on the Gateway and Tús schemes that include cleaning and renovating council-owned buildings and parks. One previously had to commit an offence to be sentenced to this!

Incredibly, this matter hasn’t yet become a major issue in the general election campaign. The mainstream politicians are seemingly happy to allow such treatment of their own countrymen to continue. We are about to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the Easter Rising, but the society plagued with forced labour is not exactly what the heroes of 1916 fought for. Officially, people pressed into doing unpaid work are classed as employed, so the unemployment rate falls. One may think that we are trying to imitate the Roman Empire where all were happily employed – as either slave owners or slaves.

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