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Submission - 15th Annual General Meeting

Today the Irish Traveller Movement (ITM) held its 15^th Annual General Meeting on the 21^st/22^nd June 2005 in the McEniff Ard Rí Hotel, Waterford.

The first motion put to the AGM was a call for the ITM and its members to develop an aggressive campaign to get the Irish Government to formally recognise Travellers as an ethnic minority group as supported by the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) convention in Geneva in March of this year.

Catherine Joyce, Coordinator of ITM, said the government’s refusal to recognise Travellers as an ethnic minority group undermines the rights that have been established for Roma, Gypsies and Travellers under various International Rights frameworks and conventions.

Claire Davey, National Accommodation Officer with the ITM said that "one of the basic fundamental human rights being denied to Travellers is the right to accommodation." Going into a new round of local accommodation programmes we hope that the government and local authorities will live up to their responsibility to provide accommodation to the remaining families who have been identified as in need of accommodation.

Today also saw the launch of the ITM education video “Travellers and Third Level Education.” The video looks at mechanisms to help promote options for Traveller students at third level institutions.

Noleen Blackwell, director of policy at FLAC, (Free Legal Aid Centres) delivered the keynote address to the delegates at the ITM AGM and Annual Conference. Noleen also launched the legal pack for ITM member groups. This pack contains information on the legal framework within which many Traveller groups find themselves working when pursuing Traveller rights.

For further details, contact:

Catherine Joyce 01-6796577 087-6316085

Claire Davey 087-9553560

David Joyce / Damien Peelo 087-2220253

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