Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Labour Party, I welcome the chargé d'affaires, Mr. Iginla. I hope I have pronounced his name correctly. I thank him for being here. I cannot stop myself from expressing deep concern about his unique status as the only representative of the embassies we asked to send representatives who is present here today. I recognise, as set out in the briefing documentation that has been provided for us and in Mr. Iginla's statements, that there is a complete separation of church and state in the Republic of Nigeria, which accommodates people of strongly held religious views of different persuasions. The reality, as Pope Francis has said, is that Christians are now the most persecuted group of religious believers in the world. The situation is getting worse, rather than better. I do not in any sense, having regard to Mr. Iginla's paper, his speech and his comments, take any action or indictment against the authorities in Nigeria because it is clear that President Buhari, who was elected recently, is attempting to regain full sovereign control over all the territories of the Republic of Nigeria, to ensure the rule of law prevails and to minimise persecution, separation or inter-religious conflict, if possible, while seeking to bring such conflict to a conclusion.

Mr. Iginla will be aware that many Christian missionaries from Ireland have been active in Nigeria for over 100 years. This country, more than many others, has a personal or familial connection with that kind of activity. We want Nigerians of every belief to be secure in expressing and practising those beliefs. We do not think they should be subject to the sorts of things to which Mr. Iginla has referred. My concern is for this country, which has a big international reach in many respects, to try to raise with representatives of other countries that have embassies here its very serious concern about the continued persecution of people who express a variety - in terms of denomination - of Christian beliefs. In a sense, Mr. Iginla's presence here provides some cover for the evasion by his diplomatic colleagues of their responsibility to come to the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade in this Parliament to hear from representatives of both Houses about their concerns regarding the continuing, if not deteriorating, situations in their countries. We did not invite the embassy of Saudi Arabia to send a representative to this meeting because the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has not signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Nigeria ratified it in 1993. All the other countries that we invited to participate at this meeting, through their embassies, have signed up to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We are asking those countries to do nothing more than live up to the obligations and responsibilities they freely and voluntarily entered into when they signed that famous 1948 document.

I do not think there is a lot more I can say, other than to register my deep disappointment that the other embassies chose not to respond to this invitation. We gave them plenty of time to do so. I think they have done their countries a disservice. My personal opinion is that by ignoring the invitation to attend this meeting, or to send a representative from the embassy staff if they could not be present because of other duties, the ambassadors have conferred a slight on the Parliament of this country. I understand that Mr. Iginla's ambassador is not available to be here, but he is attending instead on behalf of the Republic of Nigeria and I thank him for that. There is no reason the other countries we invited to send representatives, all of which have signed up to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, could not have done this Republic and its democracy the courtesy of ensuring members of their diplomatic corps came before our Parliament to explain the present positions in those countries. It is self-evident that such officials are better informed than we could be. It is right that they should respond to some of the deep concerns of many Irish people about the persecution of people for their religious beliefs.

This island has a history of understanding the divisions caused by religious beliefs that are being experienced in certain countries at present, as well as the fall-out that can have for people who adhere fervently to one belief or another. It goes back 300 or 400 years on this island. In fact, the whole map of Europe was redrawn after the destruction of Christendom with the Reformation. This affected people in various locations whose belief systems preceded their national characteristics or identities. We are not saying that Europe is perfect in this regard. We have a history. We understand what people have gone through in Europe and continue to go through in some parts of Europe. We share a common planet together. I am speaking about many people whose sole crime in the eyes of others is to have a particular set of religious beliefs, or to have adopted a new set of religious beliefs that are different from those into which they were born. That is why I was anxious for us to have this meeting. I thank Mr. Iginla for coming and I condemn the other embassies that ignored our request and did not do the courtesy of giving us a proper explanation or sending a representative here to listen to our concerns.