Major State Bodies and Human Rights Groups Support Travellers Demand for Ethnic Status

Travellers have today voted unanimously to support a national petition to become recognised as an Ethnic Minority Group.

Traveller groups attending the Irish Traveller Movement (ITM) AGM in Letterkenny committed to signing the petition, which will be submitted to the Government for action.

Major State Bodies and Human Rights groups such as The Equality Authority, Amnesty International and the National Consultative Committee for Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) have also said that they will support the campaign and sign the petition.

It is now expected that the petition will take a number of months to compile and will be submitted together with a Position Paper outlining the rationale and evidence to support the case to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

The Chairperson of the Irish Traveller Movement, Catherine Joyce, said becoming recognised as an ethnic minority group is one of the core aims of Travellers and she believes together with the support of major State and Human Rights groups they will have a strong case to make.

Ms Joyce also said; ?I warmly welcome that Government recognition of Travellers as an Ethnic Minority Group is a priority for the Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC), when it meets the United Nations Human Rights Committee to discuss Ireland?s next official report on its civil and political rights record. This will be examined by the UN next month in Geneva.

*When we were developing our current Business Plan the Irish Traveller Movement asked members what they felt was the most important issue facing the community and overwhelmingly the answer was the need to secure ethnic status. There is also a lot of independent analysis and evidence which fully supports our case.?

Niall Crowley, CEO of the Equality Authority, said the Authority would support the Irish Traveller Movement?s petition and added that "the definition of Travellers needs to be more widely articulated in national policy and programmes if Travellers are to achieve full equality in practice across all areas of policy and provision."

Amnesty International also agreed to sign the petition and promote it. Executive Director of Amnesty International?s Irish Section Colm O?Gorman said: "Amnesty International fully endorses this petition and we urge our members and supporters to join the campaign".

The Director of the National Consultative Committee in Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) Phillip Watt said it also fully supported the petition: ?The NCCRI is disappointed that the Government does not explicitly recognise Travellers as an ethnic group and will sign this petition to help highlight the issue.?

The conference?s keynote speaker, Co-ordinator of South Tryone Empowerment Programme, Bernadette McAliskey said she would also be signing the petition: ?This is a step towards making a serious challenge to the racism against Travellers. I will be honoured to sign this petition.?

Ms, Joyce said ethnic status would bring many clear benefits to the Traveller community.

Ethnic status would provide greater protection of Travellers cultural independence under law. This would include official recognition of Traveller culture in the provision of housing, education, health services. For example, nomadism would have to be properly catered for in housing provision.

It also would have implications in terms of ensuring Traveller representation in the political system. Furthermore, there is also an important symbolic meaning of Traveller Culture becoming validated as both distinct and valued within Irish society.?