I would like to welcome you to our new website, which is dedicated to the defence and promotion of human rights and civil liberties in Ireland.

I believe there has never been a greater need for a website and organisation which seeks to defend the natural rights of the citizens of this country, given the erosion of our most basic fundamental freedoms during the year 2020.

There can be little denial that Ireland has an excessive number of NGO’s (Non-Governmental Organisations) and NPO’s (Non-Profit Organisations) with more than 32,000 non-profit organisations operating in the State. When one adds to this, the fact that the State is the biggest source of funding to this sector, in that it provides approximately €5.5 billion to the sector annually (with this figure being half of the sectors annual income), questions begin to arise as to how viable the future funding models of such organisations would be, in circumstances where such organisations were diametrically opposed to government policy.

So how is this organisation different you might ask? For one, this organisation is not State funded, meaning that the ICHR is not required to censor its views for fear of funding repercussions (in this respect your continued support is necessary to ensure the ICHR can continue to operate as an independent entity). Secondly, while other human rights organisations operating in the State promote the idea of hate speech laws, protest exclusion zones, employment quotas based on race, sexuality or gender rather than merit and more, the ICHR is an organisation that is committed to defending and promotion the rights that already exist, rather than advocating for the further erosion of fundamental rights under the guise of the greater or common good.

The year 2020 has seen the greatest erosion of our freedoms since the founding of the Irish Free State and what the ICHR has found particularly concerning in this respect, is the overwhelming silence from human rights organisations in the State to such erosion. For the avoidance of doubt, the ICHR shall not remain silent on such issues.

Finally, I would like to thank you for your support to date and ask that you bear in mind the importance of your continued support to the independent functioning of this organisation.
Please feel free to browse through the different sections of this website and check back in over the next few weeks as we add more information.

Kind regards,
Tracey O’Mahony
Chairman ICHR