Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Prior to Question Time today I wrote to the Minister and asked him to raise urgently and directly the cases of 30 political and community activists who have been assassinated in Colombia with the Colombian Government. The dead include 16 political activists, including trade unionists and 14 others who were active in the community. They were assassinated over the course of 30 days, which is one person per day, from 21 February to 18 March. The list was compiled by Justice for Colombia, an NGO group. Did the Minister raise the issue specifically with his European counterparts? The Minister referred to the historic opportunity that exists but if the events I outlined are the backdrop to what is happening, we must examine the issue again.

When we debated the Colombia-EU free trade agreement in this Chamber, I argued strongly that horrendous human rights abuses were being perpetrated. A total of 534 political activists were murdered in Colombia between 2011 and 2015. Speakers from the Government side repeatedly suggested that we were wrong and that free trade would somehow improve human rights in Colombia but the 30 assassinations of political activists and trade unionists flies in the face of that. Were any of those issues discussed with European Ministers and will there be any action from the EU on what is happening in Colombia on the ground?

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