Shatter addresses UN committee on Irish human rights record
Ireland is being urged to implement a number of human rights treaties to protect vulnerable people such as those with disabilities, migrants and prisoners.
Justice Minister Alan Shatter is before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva as part of a process which allows all 192 members state to scrutinise each other.
Member states have expressed concerns about delays in implementing a number of treaties, as well as concerns about women's rights, racism, detention periods for asylum seekers and the prevalence of sham marriages.
Overcrowding in our prisons and violence among inmates were also flagged, but Minister Shatter told the committee Ireland doesn't have a problem when it comes to excessive violence in jails.
"There isn't a question of excessive violence within the Irish prison system," he told the committee.
"Prisoners occasionally have difficulties with each other - I don't think our prison system is any different in that context to other prisons within the European Union generally."
