Sir, – While it remains legal for political groups to apply for court orders to designate themselves as having a “charitable or philanthropic purpose” in order to raise funds, this is not an option which is open to human rights organisations when it comes to obtaining charitable status.
The highlighting of this inconsistency presents an opportunity to address the flaws in the existing legislation. Under the provisions of the 2009 Charities Act, the advancement or promotion of human rights is not considered to be a charitable purpose. This view seems to be unique to the Irish political system and charity law in all our neighbouring jurisdictions explicitly includes human rights.
As a result of this anomaly, an animal rights group can be registered as a charity, but a human rights group cannot. The irony is that if human rights organisations could register as charities, they would be subject to the enhanced oversight and transparency requirements of the Charities Regulator. We are hopeful that the highlighting of the inconsistencies in existing legislation may lead to a review of the Charities Act.
This review would present the opportunity to give the vital human rights work that Ireland is renowned for abroad the same standing at home and allow for more effective oversight and governance of our work. For now, we have the peculiar situation where political parties can go into court and claim that they are essentially charities in order to run lotteries, but human rights organisations who operate for public benefit cannot register as charities.
– Yours, etc,
COLM O’GORMAN,
Amnesty International
Ireland,
IVAN COOPER,
The Wheel,
JOHN DEVITT,
Transparency
International Ireland,
LIAM HERRICK,
Irish Council for
Civil Liberties,
OLIVE MOORE,
Frontline Defenders.
SIOBHAN O’DONOGHUE,
Uplift.