Call to recognise Travellers as ethnic group before UN review - Ireland

From the Irish Times

The Government has been urged to recognise Travellers as a distinct ethnic group before the next UN review of the State’s human rights record.

Marking the 20th anniversary of the Galway Traveller Movement (GTM) yesterday, Irish Centre for Human Rights representative Noelle Higgins said the State’s failure to do this to date had been criticised by the UN three years ago.

The next universal periodic review of Ireland by the UN Human Rights Council is due in 2016, and “concerted pressure must be brought to bear” on government to effect this change, Ms Higgins said.

The Galway Traveller Movement had played a vital role over the past 20 years, Ms Higgins noted, and members of the movement recalled its record yesterday when they announced details of “Whiden Toie”, a programme of events to mark the anniversary.

In the last two decades, the organisation has advocated for improved conditions for Travellers in the areas of accommodation, health, education/training, enterprise/work, justice and rights, with a focus on community work and human rights-based approaches to achieving social change, Julia Sweeney of the movement said.

“We now have a healthy vibrant organisation that is a dynamic partnership of Travellers and the settled community,” she said.

The movement had supported many young people and adults in the Travelling community to remain on in, or return to, education, including third level, and she urged young Travellers to continue to work towards this goal.

Sindy Joyce, who runs an after-school project for Traveller children at Carrowbrowne halting site, said the Government needed to ensure anti-racism and intercultural initiatives were back on the national agenda “as a matter of urgency”.

She said she had interviewed many young people who had experienced racism during her post-graduate work in sociology at the University of Limerick.

The GTM’s celebratory programme includes participation in this year’s St Patrick’s Day parade in Galway and a celebration of Traveller culture in conjunction with NUIG’s community knowledge initiative later in the autumn.

It will also mark publication of the Irish Network Against Racism report and anti-racist election protocol, later this month, and will initiate an anti-racism log in Galway city.

The data gathered will be “vital in identifying the nature and prevalence of racism against Travellers in Galway”, the movement said at its function yesterday.