Some common legal issues for marginalised groups • Lack of rights and standards within public services e.g. housing • Lack of a right to advocacy and representation • Negative effect of discretion within services e.g. social welfare and housing • Lack of the statutory right to family reunification • Lack of rights for undocumented workers • Discrimination in service provision as experienced by Travellers • Exploitation of the elderly who have lost all legal entitlements to their property • Social welfare issues and lack of access to entitlements • Lack of knowledge of the legal system and how to impact on it.
Promoting trade union membership A NEW campaign to promote trade union membership in the community sector was launched at a conference held on November 21st, in Dublin. Responding to presentations from workers in the sector, trade union leaders acknowledged that while they have had some notable successes, they have not managed to establish decent standards of employment across the sector. Both Shay Cody of IMPACT and Jack O’Connor of SIPTU addressed the conference. The next stage is to increase trade union membership so that the unions can leverage maximum influence on behalf of workers in the sector. For anyone wishing to a copy of the conference report or to get involved in the future - leaflets, posters and badges are available from Dublin Employment Pact, 7 North Great George’s Street, Dublin 1. Tel. 01-878-7900. E-mail:jsomers@dublinpact.ie. changing ireland
Consider taking a legal action strategy! - community groups could unite to fight cases THE law is a tool that Traveller CDPs in particular make good use of. However, many CDPs shy away from adopting legal strategies to achieve their communitys’ aims, or they do not recognise that they are using legal strategies already. Recently, a number of volunteers and staff in CDPs in urban and rural areas were interviewed as part of a new initiative to encourage community groups to take more legal cases. In 2005, CAIRDE, Ballymun Community Law Centre, Irish Traveller Movement Legal Unit, Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland, Northside Community Law Centre came together to see about working more closely on legal issues affecting marginalised groups. They also wanted to see how community participation within legal processes could be strengthened. "CDPs and community groups in general could be doing more if they adopted legal strategies," said Grainne O’Toole, one of the researchers leading the new initiative. Nineteen organisations were contacted which included a mix of rural, urban and issue based organisations. CDPs including Doras Bui CDP in Dublin and FORUM CDP in County Galway. Kildare Travellers Action, who are currently applying for CDP status, were also interviewed. The main issues they found were: • Marginalised groups are very vulnerable and there is an overall lack of
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support for such groups to engage with the legal process. • There is a lack of access to quality legal advice and high legal costs ensure that claiming legal rights within the courts is prohibitive. • People acceptance of discrimination and lack of enforcement of their rights is widespread. This stems from the fact that many people are unaware of their rights and/or how to go about securing them. • There is a lack of strategy building as the legal system is based around individual cases so cases that are won and precedents set are not shared on a practical level. Also, as a result of successful cases little change occurs in policies or attitudes of the state. Now, the CLAS group hope to set up a network, starting with a conference seminar in January. The venue will be Dublin, the date has yet to be set. The early recommendations of the CLAS group include the following: • Groups could work together within the CLAS network on common themes to give force to the issues being worked on. • CLAS could develop a strategy to tap into legal resources. • For more information, contact Grainne O’Toole, Talbot Mews, Vernon Grove, Rathgar, Dublin 6. Tel. 01-496-5736. E-mail: grainneotoole@gmail.com
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