UN: The vote of the UN General Assembly to establish a new Human Rights Council has been welcomed by Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern, who said it would "enhance the global machinery to promote and protect human rights around the world".
Together with the European Union, Ireland had taken an "active role" in the lengthy negotiations leading up to the UN vote, he said. The new council was "an important further step in the process of UN reform".
Paying particular tribute to the negotiating skills of the president of the general assembly, Jan Eliasson of Sweden, he said the new council represented "a significant improvement in the promotion and protection of human rights around the world". "In particular," he said, "the council will have the capacity to meet regularly throughout the year."
While conceding that the agreement in New York was "not perfect", the Minister added: "It represents significant progress in the right direction."
Of course, there were areas where the proposals could have gone further, for instance in relation to making it harder for those with poor human rights records to be elected to the new council.
"For this reason, Ireland and its EU partners have made a clear commitment not to vote for any states which are the subject of sanctions by the UN for human rights breaches.
"However, the proposals represent the best deal possible in the circumstances and have been endorsed by the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, and by most major human rights NGOs."
Looking forward to the first session of the new council in June, he pledged Ireland's "full support" for its work. "I hope that it will enjoy the broadest possible support in its new mission."