Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

There can be no clearer example of our belief in the essential value and necessity of human rights and in our willingness to advocate them than in our support for action on the crisis in Darfur. The UN Human Rights Council held a special session in December 2006 to consider the urgent human rights situation there. Ireland, along with our EU partners, was instrumental in calling for this special session. Sudan subsequently refused admission to the council's high level mission and this refusal is being considered at the current session of the council. Most recently, the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Conor Lenihan, highlighted the situation in Darfur in his speech to the 4th session of the council.

Ireland has also been to the fore in responding to the deeply worrying events in Zimbabwe. The arrest again today of opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, is a cause for alarm. Given his treatment at the hands of the authorities earlier this month, we must be concerned about his human rights and his physical safety. I join my EU colleagues in holding the Government of Zimbabwe responsible for his safety. On behalf of the Irish Government, I call for his immediate and unconditional release and that of his colleagues.

Our concerns about his arrest, however, do not stop there. His arrest and the actions of the authorities raise fundamental questions about President Mugabe's respect for basic democratic norms, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law.