Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Ensuring accountability was one of the core principles guiding Ireland’s two-year term on the United Nations Security Council. We promoted adherence to international humanitarian, criminal and human rights law across all files, supporting international courts and tribunals, advocating for the rights of victims and survivors, and seeking to strengthen the ability of the Council to act in the face of atrocity crimes.

We are maintaining this focus, particularly through the European Union, engagement in UN bodies, and support for the International Criminal Court, where ten out of the current 17 open investigations relate to Africa. In parallel, our humanitarian and development interventions offer assistance, protection, and empowerment to individuals and communities under threat, or seeking to rebuild lives post conflict. Situations in Africa where large scale attacks on civilians are threatened or reported, are a major focus of this engagement.

Since the outbreak of hostilities in Sudan in April 2023, for example, there have been multiple credible reports of targeting and killing of civilians on grounds of ethnic and social status. At the Foreign Affairs Council in June, Ireland initiated calls for additional sanctions tools to contribute to preventing violations, securing humanitarian access and breaking the cycle of impunity. We subsequently worked to ensure that a new EU autonomous sanctions regime was adopted. Meanwhile, at the UN Human Rights Council, Ireland advocated for the establishment of a Fact Finding Mission for Sudan, alongside supporting partners working with human rights defenders and civil society on monitoring and reporting.

Accountability for serious human rights violations has been one of Ireland‘s—and the EU’s – three consistent issues of focus in relation to the conflict in Northern Ethiopia. Ireland funds both the work of UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission in supporting the conduct of investigations and prosecutions, and we are following closely the development of the transitional justice policy framework. Complementing these engagements, are support for survivor-centred sexual violence response services and work to address the underlying structural causes of conflict, including promotion of national dialogue.