Ireland's record on human rights came in for warm praise yesterday from former US president Jimmy Carter, who told a human rights conference at Croke Park that, "Ireland, in recent years, has become the pre-eminent voice for human rights in the European Union."
Mr Carter was the principal speaker at the ninth annual NGO Forum on Human Rights, organised by the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Pointing out that next year would be the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, he said: "It's very sobering to realise that the conclusion of a similar document would be absolutely impossible in the political world of today."
Recalling that, on becoming US president in 1977, "I announced that human rights would be the foundation of our foreign policy", Mr Carter said the official US attitude had changed after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001.
"Since then, the USA has basically abandoned its role as a champion of human rights and has condoned or perpetrated terrible and illegal abuses in Abu Ghraib prison, in Guantánamo, and has sent prisoners secretly to other nations to be tortured."
He continued: "The enforcement of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has now reached an all-time low. Few governments are emulating the fine example being set here in Ireland."
On the Middle East situation, the Atlanta-based Carter Center which he and his wife, Rosalynn, founded in 1982, had helped monitor the Palestinian elections in January 2006, which were "absolutely orderly and safe and honest and fair".
He was critical of the fact that, "After Hamas won a majority of the parliament, the US and Israel, backed by the EU, levied a punitive boycott against all the people in Palestine because they had voted 42 per cent for Hamas."
Later, at a joint news conference, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern denied the EU had been subservient to the US and Israel in this regard.
"I disagree with that: when you are sitting around a table with 27 countries with very much diverse opinions it's always somewhat difficult to get a consensus."
The former US president was asked about the alleged "extraordinary rendition" of US prisoners via Shannon airport. Mr Carter said: "The Government of Ireland has received absolute assurances from the government of the US that this is not being done; I'm not certifying that the statement is accurate or inaccurate, I don't have any way to know, but the only alternative that the Government of Ireland has is to accept the word of honour of a respected fellow-nation."
On the use of Shannon as a transit facility by US troops on their way to Iraq, Mr Carter said: "The transfer of military personnel and other things to Iraq I think is legitimate because it is ordained or approved by the United Nations."
