During the last 4 years we have seen Donald J. Trump erode American democracy, incite hatred and violence, target ethnic minorities and flout laws both in the United States and internationally. Each day he has proven he can sink deeper into criminality, bullying, racist rhetoric and displayed his utter contempt for democratic norms and institutions culminating in calling on his supporters to march on the Capitol building to stop the certification of the 2020 US Presidential election. The events of the last 24 hours (since 6th January 2021) have shown, conclusively, that Donald Trump is a despot and a danger and Ireland should censure, condemn and penalise his behaviour in the strongest possible terms as well as preventing him from setting foot on Irish soil for the rest of his natural life. We the people of Ireland ask our elected representatives and leaders to take action and declare Donald J. Trump persona non grata with immediate effect.

This is a classic example of 'White Saviourism' portraying a negative stereotype of what Africa is like, what people in Africa in like. It's racist and discriminatory and Irish people and media/radio should be aware of how problematic it can be.

The mental stress and burden faced by undocumented children, the fear of deportation and stigma associated with not being considered a citizen and the difficulties faced when accessing supports that other children take for granted, can be taken away by a minor change to an unkind and unjust amendment to our constitution that was introduced in 2004. The Irish Nationality and Citizenship (Naturalisation of Minors Born in Ireland) Bill would provide a pathway to citizenship for children who are currently facing deportation, despite having been born in Ireland and resident here all their lives. The 27th Amendment to the Constitution, which passed in 2004, removed the automatic right to citizenship upon birth. Once it was passed, children born in Ireland lost the constitutional right to citizenship on birth; the amendment gives the Oireachtas power to legislate for routes to citizenship and naturalisation instead. Following the referendum, the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 2004 was passed which effectively removed any accessible route to citizenship for children born in Ireland. As a result, Irish citizenship law is now based on blood ties, not birthright. We do not need another referendum to reverse this. The 2004 amendment gave the Oireachtas the power to legislate for more generous pathways to citizenship. The Irish Nationality and Citizenship (Naturalisation of Minors Born in Ireland) Bill 2018 would provide a pathway to citizenship for children born in Ireland. It was passed through Second Stage by a majority of Senators on 21 November 2018; Senators from Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and the Green Party supported it, although Fine Gael opposed it. The Bill is being brought back before the Seanad for ‘Committee Stage’ on Wednesday 2nd of December next. Please contact your local Senator and TD's to say that you believe that Children born here should belong here.

Immigrants spouses are being treated and marked as herds by giving them stamp 3/1g, making it impossible for them to access the job market. What are the spouses being punished for?? It is causing mental and health deterioration for the skilled immigrants who are suffering financially by being dependent on spouses. Isolation during covid-19 is building up some serious mental concerns as depression and suicidal thoughts. Furthermore adding to the misery of immigrants, stamp 1g is given to the graduates on job search and spouses of CSEP holders and hosting agreement holders. Recruiters are not willing to entertain anyone on Stamp 1g or stamp 3. Now with many of them listing an eligibility criteria as EU/Stamp 4 holder only may apply. Immigrants' spouses who have stamp 1g or stamp 3 are as if they are handcuffed for a crime which is simply being a dependent to a permit holder or critical skill worker. Dependent immigrants want to work and equally contribute to the society and pay taxes.

In August 2020 it was announced that the Department of Justice is intending to set up a Direct Provision Centre for people who have fallen victim to the commercial sex trade which is to be run by DePaul and Ruhama. Victims of the commercial sex trade in this context means people who engaged in sex work or survivors of sex trafficking. We also believe other vulnerable people who have been victimised will be moved to this centre. While we welcome an end to human trafficking survivors being housed in Direct Provision, we would like to see everyone removed from Direct Provision and housed within communities. This step being a longer-term objective means we need to express our disapproval that Ruhama be placed in a position of responsibility within any new centre. Ruhama was founded by The Sisters of Charity and The Sisters of The Good Shephard. As of August 2020, Ruhama, while claiming to be secular, still had 3 members of the Sisters of The Good Shephard order on their board and pushes extreme ideology in relation to autonomy and sex work and sex trafficking. The Sisters of the Good Shephard and the Sisters of Charities claim to have a long history with “troubled women” from the 18th century until the eventual closure of the last laundry closing in the early 2000’s Magdalene Laundries were run by orders of nuns including the Sisters of the Good Shephard who both founded Ruhama and have current positions on their board. The Sisters of Charity too ran Magdalene Laundries. Both refused to meet their victims just a year ago. The orders trafficked women into commercial and domestic slavery and trafficked their children all around the world without consent, more sadly died. By the time the last Laundry closed the orders were involved in Ruhama. The abuses and inhumanity in the Magdalene Laundries run by The Sisters of Charity and The Sisters of the Good Shephard are finally coming into light in their full horror and in spite of attempts to seal the archives, the survivors and the public continue to fight to have them accessible for those they impacted. These two orders and those like them trafficked tens of thousands of vulnerable women and children. Putting an organisation which was founded and still claims members of an order who ran a human trafficking cartel in Ireland for decades, in a place of responsibility over vulnerable victims is absolutely irresponsible and completely ignores what we have learned from our own history. We must insist that Ruhama is taken out of the list of viable options for this role. Irish people continue to suffer at the hands of the Sisters of the Good Shephard and the Sisters of Charity and while we fight to ensure those victims still have the right to access their personal information, we must also ensure that we never allow institutions to be founded which we know have lead to abuse and degradation and damage to human life. Ruhama in its capacity as an anti sex trafficking organisation has derailed the anti- human trafficking efforts by focusing so much attention on sex trafficking while not acknowledging that labour trafficking has been the largest kind of trafficking in Ireland consistently until last year. We are unaware of any anti-labour trafficking organisation currently receiving any state funding. Child trafficking is also a serious issue on the ground when working in anti-human trafficking in Ireland, yet the only dedicated anti child trafficking organisation is not regularly funded by the Department of Justice. By conflating sex work and sex trafficking as similarly victimising Ruhama have inflated sex trafficking to be the largest nationwide trafficking phenomena which our work on the ground would discredit. We also find their attitude towards sex workers as “women in prostitution” and the lack of representation of sex workers and trafficking survivors within Ruhama to be massively problematic.

The bill was categorised by the Law Reform Commission in 2016 after focus groups of young teens identified it as a privacy issue. However on greater examination it is clear that this should fall under sexual violence laws. It is important that people who engage in image based crime should face serious implications for sharing inappropriate images without consent. Also it is important that judges and barristers should understand the full impact on victims lives from the sharing of these images, and be trained up to deal with what is a reasonably new crime, with the age of smart phones and widespread internet access.

In N.Ireland Africans, Black Minority Ethnic people do not have a voice within policy making bodies and institutions. The reason for this is Systemic Institutional Racism and Career Gatekeepers. Some of these Individuals & Organisations claim to represent Africans, Migrants, Refugees and Asylum seekers whilst on the other hand calling for 'BLM6JuneActivists" to be prosecuted.

Today ( Aug 27th 2020) another person has lost their life in Ireland's horrible Direct Provision system. It is time now for the 1.47 million Irish citizens outside of Ireland to push for change through whatever channels we can. Colm Brophy TD is Minister for the Diaspora and is the only voice we have and we must make our views clear to him - Céad Míle Fáilte is not conditional! Direct Provision was introduced as an emergency measure in 1999. Today there are 7,000 people living in direct provision. The current government coalition has committed to ending the Direct Provision System within their term however there has been limited communication about any action so far. Last week it was revealed The Department of Justice and Equality compiled daily reports of social media relating to Direct Provision, how much traction they had and how critical they were for the government. COVID-19 has again highlighted how unsafe this system is with multiple outbreaks in centres across the country. In recent times of crises, Irish governments have historically favoured austerity rather than investing in a social safety net. We have to pressure the government to deliver on their commitment by the end of their term AND ensure there are improved provisions to care for Asylum Seekers in the meantime. Irish people all over the world are given the opportunity to support our communities, to contribute to society, and to share our culture in our new homes so we want to remind you of this. Wherever you are, wherever you are from the Céad Míle Fáilte is not conditional. #DiasporaagainstDirectProvision Tag Minister for the Diaspora, Colm Brophy @brophytalks Tag Minister for Justice, Helene McEntee @HMcentee Tag Minister for Integration (DP disestablishment) Roderic O'Gorma @rodericogorman Tag Dept of Foreign Affairs @dfatirl Tage Dept of Justice @deptjusticIRL Tag MASI to show support @masi_asylum

The people who produce our food are often treated the worst in society. Now, they're being exposed to COVID-19 at work, and bosses are allowed to get away with it. It's time Minister for Health Stephen Donnolly took action to make meat factory bosses protect the people who work there.

The news is full of reports on illegal gatherings. However it’s clear that the only group being punished through the hastily approved enforcement powers under Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020 are those standing up for racial justice. Eight race hate crimes are reported every day in Northern Ireland. Black Lives Matter protesters last month took a huge stand against racism, and now the PSNI is punishing them for it.

A long-term solution to remove systemic blocks to equality, for Women, girls and minorities in Ireland, is needed. The UK, Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Sweden, Denmark and Canada have a Minister for Women or similar. It is time for the Irish government to consider a Minister for Women, like other countries. A Minister for Women and Equalities would need to do the job full-time, with enough resources, time and authority to do the work. A Minister for Women could look at systemic, policy blocks to equal opportunities in employment, education, housing and other areas for all people in Ireland, regardless of gender, marital status, family status, age, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion, socioeconomic status and membership of the Traveller community. Enquires Twitter: @zoehealy3

Facebook must do more to stop Donald Trump. His infamous Twitter posts are cross-posted to Facebook and not being moderated or reviewed. [2] Now, he's throwing money behind ads with Nazi symbols targeting our communities -> https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/18/tech/facebook-trump-ads-triangle-takedown/index.html Facebook employees organised a virtual walk out in protest over the lack of moderation on his hateful posts. [3] Calls for advertising boycotts are heating up. [4] It's time Facebook took action, and either kick Trump off Facebook, or moderate his posts and stop taking his money to spread hate. Sources [1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/may/28/zuckerberg-facebook-police-online-speech-trump [2] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/03/facebook-oversight-board-wont-review-trumps-shooting-starts-posts.html [3] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/01/facebook-employees-stage-virtual-walkout-over-trump-post-moderation.html [4] https://eu.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/06/17/facebook-hate-speech-civil-rights-groups-call-advertising-boycott/3207915001/