Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

In my few words to the UN General Assembly when I gave the statement on behalf of Ireland, I indicated that in my view some of the better elements of the Human Rights Commission should be retained, and particularly I referred to the NGO participation which we believed was important in order to keep Governments and nation states to account.

On the question of how we see it pan out, we very much support the EU position, which was our position and was agreed at EU level, to raise the human rights council to a principal organ or, indeed, a subsidiary body of the General Assembly. At present, it is a subsidiary body of ECOSOC and we believe it should be raised in order to raise the aspect of human rights to a higher level. There are issues as to whether it should be done, as currently, by a simple majority or by a two thirds majority. There are issues on the size of it also. The one good aspect of it is that it will be a standing body which will meet on a constant basis rather than on a six weeks per year basis as is the case with the existing commission. While the outcome document does not flesh out what the structures of this should be, the fact that the entire membership of the United Nations has agreed to replace the existing commission means, in effect, there is a death sentence hanging over the existing commission, and they know that.

The leadership of the new chairman, Mr. Jan Eliasson, who succeeds an excellent chairman, Mr. Jean Ping, is particularly relevant. Mr. Jan Eliasson is from Sweden where, as Deputies will be aware, the issue of human rights is strongly held. He has complimented Ireland on our stance on this particular aspect and has said to me on many occasions that when Ireland speaks on UN issues he can welcome everything we say. We are regarded as a strong ally on the reform agenda. As I stated previously on an earlier question, we will give any further assistance possible in that respect.

See this speech in context