Ireland is to increase its contribution to a United Nations human rights body, the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs announced today.
Conor Lenihan, who has special responsibility for development aid, said €2.9 million was to be allocated to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, once headed by former Irish president Mary Robinson.
Speaking at Seventh Annual Department of Foreign Affairs NGO Forum on Human Rights, Mr Lenihan added that Ireland had requested some of the 15 per cent increase be allocated to field offices.
The increase was in response to a to an a recent report by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan calling for more funding in the area.
"Human rights and development share a common objective - realising the potential of the individual to the full. It is often said that there cannot be real development without human rights and that human rights cannot be guaranteed without development," Mr Lenihan said.
He said the foreign aid branch at the department, Development Cooperation Ireland has already recognised the central importance of human rights in achieving sustainable development.
The announcement follows a report by international group ActionAid which found the Irish international aid programme to be of the "highest quality".
It found that 90 per cent of Irish assistance comes as "real aid" compared to countries such as France and the US which attaches conditions to its aid and includes administration and debt relief in its figures.
It said "phantom aid" accounted for two-thirds of aid spending by wealthy countries in its report, Real Aid: An Agenda for Making Aid Work.