Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will be very brief. I want to speak in support of the planned declaration in Reykjavik, and I thank the delegates to the Council of Europe for their work. I know that Senator O'Loughlin and others have really contributed to bringing us to this point. I also want to highlight that civil society and civil society freedom and contributions are more important than ever, given that we have seen the suppression of civil society across the world. We can cite many examples of that from Turkey to Georgia to elsewhere. In recognising the representative politics that we perform and do is part of democratic and functioning society, we must also note that civil society also has a huge and crucial role in that regard. I welcome some of the points made in the declaration. It talks about the expansion of the application of the European Convention of Human Rights, ECHR. I hope that Ireland will not just support the declaration in principle, but will follow through on it. The declaration also mentions the triple crisis in climate and biodiversity. Previously, I expressed my disappointment when we saw Ireland challenging the right to a healthy environment as part of the ECHR. What we are seeing here, in the declaration, is that idea of a vision of moving forward on the ECHR and in terms of the rights, voice and tools that civil society should have rightly in order to drive progress across all our countries.

I also note - and we will be raising the issue next week - that one aspect of civil society freedom that is important is ensuring that we do not have inadvertently chilling effects in respect of contributions to policy and advocacy. We have had that with the ambiguity around the phrase "political purposes". That has been highlighted by SIPO and has acted as a chilling effect in civil society's engagement and contribution on policy issues. Similarly, we have also seen lawsuits being taken against civil society in relation to humanitarian action, as has been described, and a narrowing of that scope.

I think the Reykjavik Summit is a really welcome opportunity. I agree that it should not be about organising the next summit. It should be where we have a declaration and move forward. I urge that after the Reykjavik Summit, we have a discussion in which we look at what we can do in Ireland to reflect that renewed and heightened level of ambition. I would welcome a further opportunity, after the summit, to talk about what I hope will be the declaration that may emerge for that, which I hope Ireland will have supported fully, and what that might mean for us and how we can perhaps lead by example in how we implement the principles that are agreed at the summit.