AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL secretary general Irene Khan has reiterated her criticism of Ireland’s alleged facilitation of rendition flights through Shannon and has questioned proposals to merge the State’s human rights agencies with other bodies.
“Human rights are not a luxury for the good times,” Ms Khan said, at NUI Galway’s Irish Centre for Human Rights to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
It would be “very sad” if plans to merge the Irish Human Rights Commission, the Equality Authority and several other agencies were implemented as a Government cost-cutting measure, she said. “These institutions have proven their worth,” she added, and it would be a retrograde step if their ability to operate was reduced at a time when government accountability for human rights was under severe pressure.
On alleged rendition flights through Shannon, Ms Khan said that assurances given by the US should be questioned by the Government in the light of Britain’s experience.
Ireland must not only listen to Amnesty International’s concerns, but also to the concerns voiced by the Council of Europe on the Shannon issue, she said.
This “weakening of accountability” also applied to the European Union which professed to be a union of values, but which had not put this into practice in many respects, she said. In a globalised economy, economic factors had “eroded the power of governments in many areas that influence and affect human rights”, she said.
Leadership was required, given that the world created by the September 11th, 2001, attacks in the US had created a “heightened sense of insecurity and vulnerability”, she said.
In this new environment, there was a “greater readiness on the part of governments, including western democratic states, to sacrifice human rights in the name of counter-terrorism
“The export value of such action has not been lost on others around the world,” she added. “Dictator and repressive regimes can now do with licence what they did with fear of criticism in the past”.
Climate change was also a human rights issue, in affecting the poorest and least vocal, as were the actions of resource companies, such as the oil and gas sector, in areas like the Niger Delta, she said.
While she added that she was not familiar with the situation involving protests over the Corrib gas project in north Mayo, there was nothing to be gained by oil and gas companies and governments supporting situations where demonstrations over environmental degradation and access to resources led to repression, she said.