Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for arriving so late in the proceedings. I was trying to bilocate but found it difficult. I would have liked to have been here for the start of the discussion and appreciate that most of the issues have been discussed already.

So many issues are competing for our attention globally that it makes it almost impossible for international agencies and the international community to deal with them in an effective way. We have discussed this issue previously with the committee. I do not know if we will achieve much progress in this regard, given the comment by the former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, quoted in the submission, that "The killers, destroyers and torturers in Syria have been empowered and emboldened by the international paralysis." The crucial question is how we address this international paralysis. If the international community is unable to do anything in response to these atrocities, those who commit them will gain power.

Questions were raised in the Dáil yesterday about the people who publicly executed individuals. They wear hoods and masks to avoid being identified. There was a similar situation in Ukraine where soldiers wearing hoods and masks were able to prevent people from identifying the dead and their personal belongings. To what extent should the international community be focusing, at the very least, on the creation of a situation where atrocities might lead to retribution at a later stage, whether through the International Criminal Court or elsewhere? We need to do something about this because otherwise it is going to continue. We will be dealing with a situation that cannot be controlled and the perpetrators will be the only ones who will be laughing.