Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 6 November 2013

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade

United Nations Human Rights Council: Discussion with Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

2:50 pm

Mr. Colin Wrafter:

I thank the Deputy for his comments and observations. He mentioned NGOs, Syria, Israel, international development, human rights and the proposed 2015 agenda. I will deal with them in that order.

I did not mention in my statement that we enjoyed a good relationship with the Irish NGOs working in the area of human rights. Through the standing committee which meets four or five times a year where we have an exchange of views with human rights organisations on what is happening at the Human Rights Council. We have found these exchanges extremely valuable, both in preparing us for membership and also in terms of what we do as a member of the council. It is partly for that reason that we place such emphasis on civil society space. We hear from the Irish NGOs about the problems relating to the shrinkage of civil society space that they are experiencing and of which they are aware in countries in Africa and eastern Europe.

In Syria the situation is, of course, to put it mildly, deplorable. Peace remains our overall objective. The most important priority in the short term is to ensure there will be full participation in the Geneva II talks, whenever they take place. It is not quite clear when they will take place. From the Irish Government's position, it is for the people of Syria to choose their own government, but it is impossible to envisage a continued role for President Assad and his closest affiliates in any new Syrian leadership. The Assad regime has committed serious war crimes, as have parts of the opposition. There must be accountability for the horrendous violations of international law, including the use of chemical weapons, committed during the war. As a matter of record, the question of human rights in Syria was raised at the Human Rights Council in September. We made a long statement on 16 September in which we expressed our concerns about what was happening in the country.

We take a strong position on the question of human rights in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. We intervened most recently at the universal periodic review, UPR, hearing on Israel which took place the week before last when we raised a number of issues, including, specifically, the detention of Palestinian children and their treatment at military courts. We also raised the questions of the demolition of houses and restrictions on humanitarian assistance for the victims of such demolition.

There has been a debate inside the European Union on Item 7. The Israelis argue that they are discriminated against because Israel is the only country with its own agenda item at the Human Rights Council. This dates back to the establishment of the council in 2005-06. The EU position is that we will continue to raise the question of the situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories regularly in the three sessions per year of the Human Rights Council under whatever agenda item is appropriate. The question of intervening on Item 7 is open. There is an ongoing debate in the European Union about the appropriateness of intervening, but the Deputy can rest assured that we will continue to argue for a full expression of the Union's views on human rights.

The Deputy raised the question of development and human rights. This is a matter of particular interest to Ireland. It is an area in which my unit and I do not take the lead. It is taken by the development co-operation division of the Department. Frankly, the question of the relationship between development and human rights was avoided in the drawing up of the millennium development goals the last time out, with the exception of gender issues. This time we must be much more conscious that development and human rights are two sides of the one coin. The debate will take place in New York rather than Geneva, but we are already keenly aware of the issues the Deputy has raised and on which we are working closely with our colleagues in Irish Aid. Speaking personally, one can no longer distinguish between the two issues as they are two sides of the same coin.