Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am anxious to put on the record the actions the Government has taken on the human rights issue in Saudi Arabia. The European Union group, of which we are a party, received approval from the Saudi authorities to attend the trials of human rights activists. This is a significant and positive development that will enable the group to more closely monitor issues relating to access to justice and the rule of law. The group also regularly interacts with Saudi human rights activists and seeks out ways to develop co-operation with local human rights groups. It also actively progresses key human rights concerns with the Saudi authorities, the Saudi Arabian human rights commission and the National Society for Human Rights. The group has drafted local human rights reports on priority issues in order to feed into high level policy discussions within the EU on human rights issues in Saudi Arabia. Ireland also raises human rights issues directly with the Saudi Arabian government. For example, Ireland's ambassador to Saudi Arabia has been active in highlighting human rights cases raised by the Irish NGO, Front Line Defenders. Both Ireland and Saudi Arabia are members of the UN Human Rights Council. As part of that forum, the UN Human Rights Council carries out a periodic review of every member state and its human rights record. Ireland played a very active part in the review of the situation in Saudi Arabia. The two areas on which we focused in that review were the freedom of association and the rights of women. So far as Ireland's engagement with Saudi Arabia is concerned, we have a very active engagement with Saudi Arabia on human rights issues. What we have to be mindful of is doing that in a way that is effective but also in a way that co-ordinates with people on the ground in Saudi Arabia, particularly co-ordinating with human rights activists on the ground in Saudi Arabia. I have explained how we do that in co-operation with other member states.

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