Dr. Oonagh Breen:

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders in Ireland produced her report in 2013 and she specifically drew attention to her concern over our failure to implement the advancement of human rights. From a regulatory perspective, we cannot regulate the organisations if they are not allowed to register. We set up a great charities registration system but they cannot be accountable and we cannot call them to account because they are not allowed to register under the system.

Finally, it makes sense to align policy. If the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is working really hard with the UN Human Rights Council and sponsoring motions that create and preserve civic space and at the same time at home we do not afford that same right to our domestic organisations, that is a contradiction in policy terms in which we really should not be engaged. We should be singing from the same hymn sheet here. If we are working very hard on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade side of things and in the UN Human Rights Council, we should at least be consistent on a policy basis at home with regard to domestic organisations.