Pavee Point welcomes the publication of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) concluding observations (COBS) on the eighth periodic report of Ireland. We particularly welcome their inclusion of clear and comprehensive recommendations to address the stark inequalities currently faced by Traveller and Roma women.
In the lead up to this publication, a coalition of Traveller and Roma organisations engaged in a range of advocacy activities at each stage of the CEDAW review process. The coalition developed an alternative report and participated directly at the Irish State examination in Geneva in June to ensure the inclusion of Traveller and Roma women’s voices.
The aim of this work was to raise our key concerns in line with the UN Convention as related to Traveller and Roma women’s rights, including implementation of agreed policy, health inequalities, mental health, racism, discrimination, homelessness/accommodation, education, including early years, political representation and participation, poverty and impact of Habitual Residence Condition, the rise of the Far Right, and the rise of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.
Recommendation 48 explicitly focuses on the discrimination faced by Traveller and Roma women and calls for the full implementation of National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy and the penalising of Local Authorities when they fail to meet Traveller accommodation needs. There are other important concluding observations on the over-representation of Traveller women in detention, Traveller and Roma women’s political participation, the need for disaggregated equality data, and targeted measures to address Traveller and Roma women’s unemployment.
It is important to see targeted recommendations for Traveller and Roma women, as well as the wider mainstreaming and inclusion of Traveller and Roma women across a range of issues, along with other women facing racism, marginalisation and exclusion in Ireland.
We were disappointed that the COBs did not include a specific mention of the discriminatory impacts of the Habitual Residence Condition on Roma women and their children, however, we welcome recommendation 44(b) to conduct evaluations of welfare policies to assess their differential impact on women, with particular attention to intersecting forms of discrimination. This puts a clear onus on the State to review HRC for its potentially discriminatory impacts on Roma and other marginalised groups.
We also note references in the Concluding Observations to the forced sterilisation of Roma women, and we have followed up directly with the State and Committee on this. Although we are aware of Roma women’s experiences of forced sterilisation across a number of European countries and many decades, we are not aware of any direct incidents in Ireland and this was not raised by the Coalition.
You can access the full list of CEDAW Concluding Observations here
You can access a short summary of relevant COBS for Traveller and Roma women here.