THE GOALS OF THE MENS HUMAN RIGHTS IRELAND GROUP

Our goals are as follows:

• In 99% of divorce cases, the majority of which are initiated by women, the family home goes to the wife. In a supposed age of equality this does not appear to be very equitable, and must be addressed.

• MHRI intends to rectify child custody unfairness as well as maintenance payment issues in the family courts, and get parental alienation identified legally as child abuse as well as sorting out the access issues fathers face. All holdovers from the Tender years doctrine must be repudiated by the courts. One potential avenue to address these issues might be binding mandatory prenuptial agreements. We fully support shared parenting and the rights of the father.

• A more rigorous process for the granting of Safety and Protection orders must be put in place. At a minimum  the District Court Rules be amended to require that ex parte applications for a protection order or an interim barring order be made on affidavit and that the respondent automatically be provided with a note of all the evidence given at the hearing. Also, personal service of the barring summons should be required in all cases or, at least, where the respondent is barred ex parte. The current system is too easy to abuse, as women can simply place themselves in proximity to a man under such an order then call the Guards and have him arrested without trial. This is in violation of the constitutional right to and legal principle of habeas corpus.

• Misandry - all forms of hatred for males simply because they are males must stop, including homophobia and transphobia.

• The MHRI group respects and supports the rights of gay men, and will work towards ending discriminatory practices and ensuring equivalency.

• Groups and individuals encouraging and educating women in methods to abuse the court system must be made liable for their actions in a court of law.

• We wish to ensure that greater social and government support goes towards the homeless, the vast majority of whom are men, and set up a countrywide network of male domestic violence shelters. We also intend to raise awareness and funds for Amen.ie, Ireland's male domestic violence support group.

• Mens studies courses in all third level institutions where there is a gender or womens' course in place.

• All womens' councils are to be replaced by equality councils in order to end discrimination, the membership of which councils are to be chosen for their impartial, non-ideological and egalitarian experience. The same will apply to all womens' councils and seat in any organisation which is in receipt of public funding.

• A ban on gender specific exclusionary meetings, especially in the Dáil and Seanad, as Senator Bacik recently indulged in at the expense of the taxpayers.

• Legislation must be non gendered and enforced as such, not merely paying lip service to the ideals of equality.

• The intentional propagation of false statistics, misleading statistics and the misrepresentation of statistics with a view to influencing legislation, acquiring taxpayer funds, and otherwise defrauding bodies private or public must be criminalised, and those responsible exposed and made accountable for their attempted fraud.

• Our third level institutions are not indoctrination camps, students must be given the right to object to adherence to ideologies being made part of the curriculum and ultimately academic success.

• Education - women are graduating from third level institutions at far greater rates than men, which must be investigated and addressed. Women are more likely to have a third-level qualification, with over half (53%) of women aged 25-34 having a third-level qualification compared with nearly four out of ten men (39%) in this age group.

• The disparities in workplace deaths between men and women must be addressed, along with awareness campaigns and legislation to reduce workplace deaths which are in the vast majority men.

• Suicide - men commit suicide at five times the rate of women, and moreso in high risk categories; this is unacceptable. An investigation as to whether automotive deaths where no reasonable explanation can be found for the fatality and deaths due to substance and alcohol abuse should be reclassified as probable suicides. Also an analysis of the statistical correlation between divorce and male suicide is needed.

• A greater focus on male mental health issues needs to be pursued at the national level.

• Domestic Violence - hundreds of scientific studies covering over a quarter of a million people have identified the fact that domestic violence, whether physical, financial or emotional is equally divided between the genders, MHRI seeks full legal and cultural recognition of this fact, in particular with reference to Garda handling of domestic dispute incidents and legal decision making.

• Paternity Fraud - estimates for paternity fraud vary considerably, MHRI wants to see solid research done in this area and paternity testing before names are entered on birth certificates. This also has benefits for the child. For example, knowledge of one's medical history can be useful. Not knowing one's background is far from ideal and believing the wrong person is your father can cause even more problems. Also, accidentally marrying/having a child with a relative is not generally a good idea. Having such testing should decrease the chances of it happening. Hospitals already go to a lot of effort, such as blood testing, if they think a child has been given to the "wrong" mother.

• False Rape Accusations - these heinous crimes must be recognised for what they are.

• The Legal System - women get far lesser sentences for the same crimes than men, if they are convicted at all; MHRI wishes to see full equality before the law regardless of gender. We need to complete and update research into ensuring that sentencing disparities based on gender are removed.

• Surveys and research need to be carried out on the male experience of violence, domestic and sexual, and its effect on society.

• Health - the MHRI intends to push for equal spending on health for both men and women.

• Genital Integrity - circumcision and all forms of genital mutilation except for serious medical reasons must be banned.

• MHRI intends to push to make marriage a more equitable institution for men.

• An investigation into the outcomes for children from fatherless homes needs to take place - current international research indicates they are disadvantaged in almost all areas, which has knock on effects for society at large.

• Reproduction - both men and women have an equal right to reproductive choice, if a man isn't ready to become a father he should have the option to be excused liability at an early stage in the pregnancy; if after all a woman doesn't wish to become a mother she has options. The default to prevent abuse is that the father is not liable.