Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister. We have already discussed this legislation at committee level. The Minister has given a good background to the ambit of our human rights record within our legislation and the effects of the European Convention for the Protection Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. It must be remembered that this is a binding international treaty from the Council of Europe. It is interesting that it was ratified by Ireland in 1953. Ireland and Sweden are recorded as the first countries to accept the right of petition to the European Court of Human Rights. Like Ireland, Sweden has a good track record in this area.

It is also worth noting that the convention laid the foundation for a new Europe. Inasmuch as necessity is the mother of invention, through adversity often come positive things. The European Convention on Human Rights came about as a consequence of the wars that ravaged Europe in the first half of the last century. Like the UN, it is an example of good coming from the difficulties which were experienced across the globe, but particularly in Europe, at that time. We have had occasion in this House to compliment Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman on the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community, which became the European Community and which has progressed to the benefit of all the citizens of Europe. Again, this was probably a direct consequence of atrocities such as the Holocaust, which highlighted man's inhumanity to man in a most graphic way.

In the context of this debate, it is important to recognise and remember the genesis of the European Convention on Human Rights. It came from an acceptance that where there were totalitarian regimes and dictatorships in which democracy was displaced, there were severe infringements of human rights. We have been fortunate in Ireland in avoiding the worst effects of that. The Minister outlined our legal framework, which is founded on our Constitution and which has ensured that we have been at the forefront in this area.

The convention protects the right to life; the right to freedom from torture and slavery; the right to liberty and security of the person; the right to a fair and public trial, that there be no punishment without law; the right to respect for private and family life in one's home; the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and the right to freedom of expression, assembly and association. This could be regarded as belt and braces legislation in that many of the convention's provisions are probably explicitly provided for in the Constitution and, where this is not the case, they are implicit.