Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Last week, there was great fanfare about the appointment of Ireland to the United Nations Human Rights Council. It is ironic that this country should be appointed as an international guardian of human rights when in the week since that appointment the Government has failed so utterly to uphold the rights of vulnerable citizens and their families, both in this country and abroad. The Government has failed in its duty to uphold the rights of a young pregnant woman, the late Ms Halappanavar, to choose an abortion when she begged for one with tragic consequences. The Government has failed to provide the independent public inquiry for which her family has asked repeatedly to investigate her death. The Government has failed to speak out about the rights of young children and their families who are being massacred by Israeli missiles and artillery fire in Gaza as we speak.

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