David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Richard Bruton, to the House.

It might strike him as an unusual issue to bring before him in terms of an Adjournment motion but, as a party, we have tried to get a Dáil debate on this and we have been unsuccessful to date.

In spite of formal talks on peace and land reform in Colombia, more than 70 human rights defenders were murdered there this year. Colombia remains one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a trade unionist. NGOs on the ground are saying that now is not the time to increase trade links. They welcome the peace and the land reform talks, however nothing is set in stone and all is still in flux.

The Colombians want trade but trade that works for them and does not undermine local economies or improve the human rights situation. A human rights report has revealed that in the second half of 2013, the Colombian police were the principal perpetrators of human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law. The report concluded that these figures "contradict considerably with the official government discourse which is centred around the consolidation of peace in Colombia". Columbia has experienced more than six decades of violence linked mostly to a deep unresolved agrarian conflict. At the heart of this conflict is land and how power is abused in Colombia. The EU states that there are human rights clauses in the FTA but human rights must always be included in the EU's free trade agreements and while a violation of human rights by any country could warrant suspension, this has never occurred. Additionally, the free trade agreement does not exactly say what constitutes a significant enough human rights violation to suspend the agreement. Will one murdered trade unionist suspend it? Will ten murdered landless peasants at a protest suspend it? One only has to look at how Israel has conducted its affairs in recent times to see how low the EU's threshold is for human rights clauses in free trade agreements. Israel indiscriminately bombed Gaza, killing more than 2,188 people, the vast majority of whom were civilians and many children, as the Minister knows, and more than 11,000 people were injured. It committed war crimes, it is a serial human rights abuser and it has continued to violate international law, continues to occupy the Palestinian territories and yet the EU's foreign trade agreement with Israel is ironically "based on respect for human rights and democratic principles". I think the people of Gaza would dispute that. If the EU will not cancel an FTA agreement with a country that commits blatant war crimes and human rights violations, it does not hold out much hope that it will do so with Colombia.

Ireland is the only country left to sign an agreement. Effectively, we are asking the Minister to confirm when he will bring this issue to the Dáil or Seanad. We believe we should have the opportunity to vote on this issue. Does the Minister agree that he should hold an open debate, either in the Seanad or in the Dáil? While it is helpful to raise the matter on the Adjournment, I would imagine there would be many Members of the Oireachtas who would want to have their say on this issue.

I look forward to the Minister's response.