Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

Is the Minister of State aware that Amnesty International outlined that a human rights-based approach entails more than a formal commitment to respect human rights norms and standards? It stated it requires the integration of those minimum standards into all planned policies, budgets and processes in an institution. Does the Minister of State agree that the decisions of the Department of Foreign Affairs do not meet those standards? Does he agree that the absence of a rigorous human rights-based approach to his responsibilities has been exposed by the passage of arms and a helicopter gunship through Shannon Airport to serial human rights abusers in Indonesia and Israel? I recently highlighted the shipments to Indonesia which were in breach of an arms embargo.

Last week, Shannon Airport was used to facilitate the sale of an Apache attack helicopter.

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