On Sept 15 2016, a delegation from Men’s Voices Ireland met with Chief Commissioner Emily Logan of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) who was accompanied by Ruth Gallagher, Head of Policy and Review. We spoke about the following major items:
Family Law
How the Family Courts system disadvantages men; how easily men can be removed from their homes; access, custody and the lack of rights for unmarried fathers; how the law discourages young men from getting married.
Istanbul Convention
We pointed out that there has been no debate on this issue, which is supported by the IHREC, despite its far-reaching consequences and of our efforts to gain media attention for it, efforts which met with very little success. We pointed to the recent research on Domestic Violence which demolishes the ideological underpinnings of the Convention.
Lack of male advocacy groups
This third item came up in the course of discussion, and how this lacking gravely this affects the slant of legislation. This caused some surprise; the commissioner emphasised how important it was to have pre-legislative scrutiny of new legislation. We pointed out that this did not happen in the case of the Istanbul Convention.
The Chief Commissioner promised to bring our views to the attention of the full commission.
