UN COMMITTEE CLEAR THAT THE STATE MUST TAKE URGENT ACTION TO ADDRESS ISSUES AROUND WOMEN IN PRISON

7th July 2025

The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) welcomes the clear recommendations issued today by the UN Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) following its review of Ireland’s record on women’s rights last month in Geneva.

The Committee’s Concluding Observations reflect many of the points made by IPRT around women in detention and the wider criminal justice system, in both our submissions and during direct discussions we had with the Committee in Geneva.

Responding to today’s publication of CEDAW’s Concluding Observations, IPRT Executive Director, Saoirse Brady said:

“At a time when we are seeing record numbers of women end up in the criminal justice system, it is important that the UN Committee has chosen to shine a spotlight on the issues that impact so many of these women. We welcome the Committee’s call to ‘[t]ake immediate and effective measures to address overcrowding in women's prisons and ensure that detention conditions meet international standards’. Given that the two women’s prisons are again two of the most overcrowded in the State today, this urgent call to action is particularly timely.

IPRT welcomes the call to expand the use of community-based sanctions which reflects the Programme for Government commitment. As a State, we can no longer drag our heels on this issue, and it is encouraging to see the Minister for Justice start to progress legislation in this vein. But it cannot come quickly enough if we really want to stem the record numbers of women entering into our prison system.

Again, we see the Committee repeat its 2017 recommendation for the State to establish an open prison for women. Notably, this goes further than the Programme for Government commitment to simply explore the potential for one”.

The Committee also focused on minorities throughout its Concluding Observations with a particular emphasis on Traveller and Roma women. Saoirse Brady continued:

“Significantly, the Committee recognised and called out the overrepresentation of Traveller women in detention. This is a completely untenable situation. It is unacceptable that at times Traveller women represent one in four women in detention when Irish Travellers make up less than one per cent of the general population. IPRT is also concerned that these figures are an under-estimation and that there may be even more women in prison who have not disclosed their ethnicity. This is why the Committee’s call to “[a]ddress the root causes of the overrepresentation of Traveller women in places of deprivation of liberty and expand non-custodial alternatives” and to do this by consulting with Traveller and ethnic minority women and putting in place gender-sensitive responses, is so important and necessary. Coupled with the recommendation to ‘[s]ystematically collect disaggregated data in the criminal justice system to enable evidence-based policy-making and monitoring of discriminatory practices’ this could be a game-changer in terms of knowing the underlying issues, the State needs to address and how best to do this”

Finally, IPRT notes the comments of the Committee around the impact of violence against women, poverty, social exclusion and homelessness on many women in Ireland today:

“The Committee recognises that poverty and lack of adequate housing can disproportionately impact female-headed households. While not explicitly mentioned, we know this is particularly the case when a partner is imprisoned, and a mother is left to fend for her family with little state support. This is a situation which should be addressed sooner rather than later to ensure that no family falls into poverty because of imprisonment.

Unfortunately, we continue to see so many women coming into contact with the criminal justice system because of the trauma or violence they themselves have experienced or due to circumstances they find themselves in which often includes homelessness or rough sleeping. It is a sad fact that until the State supports these women with wraparound supports – including on release from prison – they will not escape the revolving door of the prison system”.

ENDS

For all media enquiries, contact Saoirse Brady, IPRT Executive Director, on:  

M: +353 86 043 3060        E: communications@iprt.ie      W:  www.iprt.ie

NOTES FOR EDITORS:

1. IPRT is responding to the publication of the CEDAW Concluding Observations published on 7 July 2025.
2. Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) | www.iprt.ie

IPRT is Ireland's leading non-governmental organisation campaigning for the rights of everyone in prison and the progressive reform of Irish penal policy, with prison as a last resort.

3. Prison figures:

On Monday 7 July 2025, there were 5,472 people in prison custody with the Dóchas Centre in Dublin operating at 129 per cent capacity and Limerick Women’s Prison operating at 155 per cent.