Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

What a depressing report. If 2014 was a year of international failures, we are only halfway through 2015 and it is looking as if this will surpass it.

Mr. O'Gorman mentioned the UN Convention against Torture. Torture continues. The international arms trade treaty is constantly being broken. International humanitarian law, which talks about distinguishing between civilians and combatants, is constantly being broken. There is a complete and utter disregard for any humanitarian law that has been introduced. I suppose one question is how Amnesty International keeps going in all of this. Where is the raison d'être, the reason to not give up and throw the towel in, because there is so much that is depressing?

It is difficult to see what exactly the Human Rights Council, of which Ireland is a member, is achieving because of the disregard by so many for human rights. I discussed the Baha'i with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. Iran has to come back on certain issues relating to persecution of Baha'i, and I raised it to see what would happen after that.

So much of what is happening today came from a disregard for the right to peaceful protest as a basic human right. We see that in Syria and with what has happened in Egypt and Kiev. One could pick anywhere. It is that disregard for the right to peaceful protest, irrespective of the issue. We met quite a number of groups here and one was very concerned about the massive increase in the persecution of religious minorities, particularly Christians.

I have three particular questions. The first is about the death sentence and whether any progress has been made in relation to those countries that use the death sentence. The second is about Libya. Is Amnesty hearing any reports from there and can it do anything? The third one relates to our discussion of prisoners. We generally speak of prisoners abroad. I want to mention here that there are prisoners in Northern Ireland, in Maghaberry Prison, who are suffering injustice and abuses of their human rights. There are persons in prison on remand for quite a number of years. I could cite for Mr. O'Gorman individual cases of persons whose human rights are being abused. In one case a prisoner, who is not a political prisoner, cannot access legal and domestic visits because he is in a wheelchair. There are serious issues that are threatening a conflict-free environment in the prison, and that are threatening the peace process and stability there, and I wonder whether Amnesty has been contacted by anybody about those issues in Maghaberry.