Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. I have about five questions but I will try to hit the nail on the head and stop the waffle. The Minister mentioned the Arab Spring, the wonderful revolutions in the Arab world. Is he conscious of the reputed difficulties being experienced by the Coptic Christians in Egypt? I refer to US Secretary of State, John Kerry's visit to the Holy Land and to Israel. We have met with Arab Christian leaders of the Anglican, Catholic and Orthodox religions. They were very unimpressed by the Secretary of State's presence in Israel, in so far as they were of the view that he was reinforcing the concept of the Jewish State. As Arab Christians, they feel terribly under threat and their populations are being squeezed out. They believe they are deemed to be second-class citizens in the Jewish state. Is the Minister aware of the concerns of the Coptic Christians?

The Gaza strip is currently controlled by Hamas which is imposing an Islamic form of education including the segregation of boys and girls at a certain age. This is being done in the interest of establishing the cultural rights of those who believe in Islam. The Jews are creating a Jewish State, an Islamic region is being created in the Gaza strip and the Christians - Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox - are feeling very squeezed out.

The Minister's comments about Russia are very interesting. He said that less progress was achieved on the new agreement centred around energy and human rights:

However, as in any important relationship, there are issues where our interests, and indeed the values that define those interests, differ, and in March, Ministers discussed how best to communicate to Russia, in a frank and constructive manner, its concerns about worrying developments in respect of political pluralism and human rights within the country.

This morning the committee was addressing the Magnitsky case. We asked for an opinion from the Russian ambassador. I will read the a portion of the response we received from him:

Unfortunately, the group of parliamentarians who initiated consideration of questions concerning the Magnitsky Act at the Irish Parliament took for a basis only naked assertions by the person who committed a number of economic crimes in the territory of the Russian Federation. This approach certainly will not enrich bilateral Russian-Irish relations and can have negative influence on the negotiations on the adoption agreement between Russia and Ireland being progressed.

When we discuss a human rights issue like the Magnitsky case we are not attacking Russia per se. We are dealing with a human rights issue. It might be appropriate for the witnesses to convey to the Russians that, as parliamentarians, we take an interest in human rights issues across the globe.

The conference on hunger, nutrition and climate justice was important. I attended most of it and renewed contacts with many people from around the world, including people from Afghanistan, a woman from Niger whose interest is in the pastoralists, cattle people travelling across Niger, Nepalese from the villages in the middle of the jungle, and Mongolians who almost got lost on the way to the Cliffs of Moher but arrived back safely. I renewed contact also with Masai tribespeople whom I knew when I lived in Africa, and the pastoralists who are very concerned about their rights in terms of moving cattle across land owned either by the state or game reserves.

In terms of where we go from here, it was a remarkably successful conference. Everyone who attended was in awe of the work being done both by the Tánaiste's Ministry and Mary Robinson. Many of the debates were on where we go from here and the issue of the millennium goals, which will expire in 2015. We are examining the European development budget and the question of the United Nations starting a new round of development goals. I congratulate the witnesses on their intention to bring to the attention of the foreign ministers the important messages that emerged from the conference. They are now doing what the pastoralists and the advocates for the hungry and the poor wanted raised through the various political tiers. I thank them for that.