The ICHR have been engaging with external lawyers to secure legal advice on the most appropriate form of litigation to challenge the Covid-19 laws and while many of you may wish to see a broad right to travel, right to associate, right to assemble legal challenge, the legal advice does not support this form of action for many reasons. The advice we have received supports either a right to worship or right to work challenge, but of course, even if the ICHR is to pursue either of these challenges, there is no guarantee of success.

Many of you may be aware that Declan Ganley is taking a right to worship legal challenge, so the question that we, at the ICHR, have spent much time contemplating is, whether the ICHR should pursue a right to work legal challenge.

We have decided that we should for the following reasons:

1. the right to work is fundamental to freedom as it is the foundation for the realisation of other human rights and for life with dignity;
2. the State has a general duty to protect your right to work and earn a livelihood from unjust attack, however, in 2020 we have seen the gravest attack on your right to earn a living
3. the legal case the ICHR is considering will be focused on small family run businesses. We are very cognisant of the fact that small family run businesses have been hit most severely by the lockdown measures and there is a real possibility of their becoming extinct. We believe that the extinction of such small businesses will not only be detrimental to the families concerned, but will also be detrimental to the wider community and impact negatively on all country towns and cities across Ireland;
4. the proposed legal case will not be limited to any one type of business or any one plaintiff as the ICHR hope to run a test case using a restaurant, while also recruiting 20 or so other plaintiffs across a range of businesses. The purpose of running this action as a test case is to establish a precedent which will be followed in the 20 or so other cases; and
5. all of the evidence the ICHR would have used to establish the unreasonableness of the Covid-19 laws around travel, association and assembly will be used in the right to work legal case.

The ICHR wish to make clear that there is no guarantee of success with this legal case, however, if this case proceeds and is successful it could pave the way for people to take other forms of challenge.

If the ICHR are to spearhead this legal challenge we must ensure that we do not prejudice others from taking similar or other challenges around the Covid-19 laws by being ill prepared. In this regard it is necessary to employ senior counsel, junior counsel, a firm of solicitors and several expert witnesses. We are happy to say that we have made progress on many of these engagements already.

So what do the ICHR need from you, you might ask:

1. Most importantly the ICHR need your continued support in the form of donations, as this case will not be possible without your further support; and
2. We need you to spread the word about this case as the ICHR are seeking to recruit plaintiffs at this time. In this regard we wish to hear from any business owner who has been adversely affected by the Covid-19 laws such as gyms, bookstores, coffee shops, barbers, salons, gift shops, cloths shops etc.