IRELAND IS to seek election to the United Nations Human Rights Council for the first time this year, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said.
The Human Rights Council is an intergovernmental body within the UN consisting of 47 member states. The council was created by the UN General Assembly in 2006 for the purpose of addressing human rights violations, replacing the much-criticised UN Commission on Human Rights.
The council assesses the situation of human rights in all 192 UN member states through what is known as the “universal periodic review”.
Announcing Ireland’s intention to seek election to the body, Mr Kenny described the State as being “at the fore of those promoting peace, justice, security and development”.
“If elected, Ireland would support clear and strong action by the council in addressing human rights violations and in promoting universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
The Taoiseach was speaking in response to the message of Pope Benedict XVI for the 45th World Day of Peace. “A commitment to justice and to peace is fundamental to achieving human rights,” he said.
“Through our participation in the European Union, in our ongoing commitment over many decades with a process that has led to peace on our island and by our strong engagement with the peacekeeping forces of the UN, the Irish people have demonstrated an instinctive respect for peace, justice and human rights.”
Members of the Human Rights Council are elected by member states of the UN General Assembly. The 47 seats are distributed geographically, with seven allocated to the western European group. Members are elected for three years but can be suspended, as happened last March when Libya was suspended due to Muammar Gadafy’s brutal response to protests against his regime.
Catholic primate Cardinal Seán Brady said in St Patrick’s Cathedral Armagh yesterday it was “vitally important” that society assumed its responsibility where the issue of suicide was concerned.
“Suicide is now the biggest killer of young men in Ireland, but not only young men. It is vitally important therefore that society, as a whole, take on board its responsibility in this matter and give careful consideration to the challenge of listening appropriately to the concerns of young people.”
In St Mary’s Church on Haddington Road, Dublin, yesterday, Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin called for dialogue between faith. “This is particularly the case for our own Irish society in which there has been a radical change in the way in which we base and root the values which underlie our peaceful living together as a pluralist society.”