Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

I would probably be among the most reluctant in this House to invoke a Chapter 7 resolution of the United Nations, but I cannot see how the 2005 declaration at the summit on human rights protection can mean anything unless it can also accommodate a motion which may ask the regional authority with the delegated function to intervene to ensure human rights protection. I know what I am saying carefully here, that sovereignty cannot be tolerated after 2005 as a shield for the abuse of human rights.

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