Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Creighton. I welcome the fact that she acknowledged the concerns the Government shares on the human rights situation in Colombia, which is quite profound. Even with the arrival of the new administration of President Santos, the human rights problems have not eased all that much. In the first year of his presidency, more human rights defenders were killed across the country than in the previous year.

There is the significant issue of displacement. Some 286,000 people were displaced in 2010. Then there is the concern around the indigenous peoples that such displacement is related to foreign multinationals with speculative investment in mining, agriculture, and so on.

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