The Oireachtas Justice Committee has recommended that all people working in the courts system, including courts services staff, lawyers, and judges receive “culture competency training to understand how to work across different cultures and to tackle the unconscious bias that may exist and the assumptions they may hold about those from a different background.”
The recommendation is one 27 wide-ranging recommendations outlined in the Committee’s Report on Minorities Engaging with the Justice System.
The Report also recommends that NGO’s and other organisations working directly with individuals from minority groups have access to ‘adequate resourcing’ in order to ‘raise awareness and ensure access to justice.’
Additional recommendations from The Committee include a request that diversity training programmes should include ‘an experiential exercise’ and should involve representatives from within minority communities being part of or presenting elements of this training first-hand.
It also recommends that the composition of juries be examined to ensure a broad societal representation is being achieved, ‘inclusive of minority interests’ and that an action plan to address gaps arising should be identified.
The following recommendations are also contained within the Report:
Summarising the Report, Committee Chair, James Lawless (FF) noted that as “Ireland has become more diverse in recent years, it has become more important than ever to be aware of the particular challenges facing individuals from minority groups when they engage with the justice system and to evaluate how their experiences could be improved upon.”
The full Report from the Oireachtas Justice Committee can be read here: