Ireland makes significant commitment to reform its Anti-Discrimination Laws at United Nations Human Rights Review

10 November 2026

FLAC has warmly welcomed the commitment to enact legislation to update and strengthen Ireland’s anti-discrimination and equality laws before the end of 2027 made by Emer Higgins TD, Minister of State at the Department of Children, Disability and Equality. Minister Higgins made the commitment while representing the State at the United Nations in Geneva where Ireland underwent a review of its human rights record under the Universal Periodic Review process. The UPR is a ‘peer review’ is of the United Nations Human Rights Council under which the human rights record of each UN Member State is reviewed periodically.

FLAC has long campaigned for the reform Ireland’s equality legislation and the enactment of the Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024 which emerged from the Review of the Equality Acts. We have noted that the 2024 Bill has the potential to “breathe fresh life into the prohibition of discrimination and to encourage the development of a culture of compliance with equality law.” Minister Higgins statement today represents the first time the Government has committed to enacting the Bill within a specific timeframe and it is a hugely welcome development.

FLAC has engaged fully with the UPR process. We made a joint submission to the UPR with ICCL and spoke at the UPR ‘pre-session’ held in Geneva in August where we briefed UN Member States on our key concerns and recommendations. We were pleased to see our key recommendations reflected in the recommendations made by Member States to Ireland today.

This includes a recommendation from Norway for the State to ensure that any reforms to the judicial review process do not limit effective access to the courts for disadvantaged groups. Indonesia also highlighted access to justice and called on Ireland to undertake measures to improve the effectiveness and accessibility of the civil legal aid system for disadvantaged groups. A significant number of States made recommendations in relation to combatting discrimination and protecting the rights of Travellers and Roma, including Angola which called on Ireland to strengthen the protections which those communities enjoy against discrimination in housing. We are calling on the State to accept those recommendations.

FLAC hosted a viewing of the livestream of the UPR hearing at our offices in collaboration with IHREC. We are very grateful to the representatives from a range of civil society organisations who joined us and to IHREC for supporting the event.