AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL Ireland says it is calling on TDs and Senators to stand up for human rights at home and not just abroad.
The organisation will launch a report, Human Rights: The Sustainable Future, in Dublin this morning. Executive director Colm O'Gorman said Amnesty was delivering a call to action to members of the Oireachtas.
"It is time our politicians stood up for human rights in this country. It is time the right to housing and the right to health in Ireland were accepted as every bit as important as the right to a fair trial in Guantánamo or to be free from torture in China," he said.
"Our elected representatives are just that: elected to represent the views of their constituents."
He said 20,000 Amnesty International Ireland supporters would be mobilised across Ireland in the coming months to ensure the organisation's message was taken seriously by politicians.
Mr O'Gorman said the report contained simple proposals that every TD and Senator, "whether they are in Government or opposition", could work on and contribute to. He will be joined at the launch by Joanna McMinn of the National Women's Council of Ireland and chair of the Equality and Rights Alliance. Today has been designated International Human Rights Day to mark the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations.
