11th August 2018
In response to an article published by The Irish Times on 6 August 2018, IPRT Executive Director Deirdre Malone penned a letter to the Editor of The Irish Times calling for the Minister to publish the Operational Review of Oberstown.
In response to the Minister's non-publication of the report due to the "passage of time", Ms Malone states that this has "never been an acceptable reason for non-publication of this type of report."
Ms Malone expressed concern about issues raised by the authors of the report around the relevance of the report's findings to sentencing of some young people, stating "it is extremely difficult to understand how the decision not to publish the findings of this operational review could be in the best interests of the children detained there."
Calling for the publication of the full report, Ms Malone emphasises that "independent external oversight forms a crucial role in the protection of human rights and the prevention of ill-treatment in places where children are deprived of their liberty. To be fully accountable, all reports of this nature must be available to public scrutiny in their entirety."
The letter is available in its entirety on The Irish Times website.
See more:
Respect for rights in the penal system with prison as a last resort.