Sir, – As Ireland ends its term on the UN Security Council, aid organisations, including Concern Worldwide, will remember it as a champion of the humanitarian cause.
While the obstacles of UN reform and the problematic veto by permanent Security Council members remain, Ireland has done as much as it could on the Security Council within these confines.
Ireland’s accomplishments in the council are numerous, but perhaps more importantly, its actions at the UN have translated to real-life positive impacts for humanitarian workers and people caught up in crisis around the world.
From ensuring aid can continually be delivered to northwest Syria, to speaking up about the safety of aid workers, to holding perpetrators of abuse and violence to account, to pushing through the recent humanitarian exception for UN sanctions regimes, Ireland has worked tirelessly to ensure that those in need can access life-saving aid.
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It has done this at a time when the number of people in need around the world is at its peak, and when political dynamics at the UN are more challenging than ever.
This is a testament to its commitment to the values it set out at the start of its term, as well as to the tireless work of the talented Department of Foreign Affairs staff in New York and Dublin.
Importantly, Ireland has also made a point to regularly consult organisations like Concern that are carrying out work on the ground so that messages delivered at the Security Council were rooted in grounded realities.
It is with a heavy heart that we watch Ireland leave the UN Security Council.
However, we are comforted by the positive legacy that it leaves behind and the potential it has to continue its important work in the UN and beyond. – Yours, etc,
CONNELL FOLEY,
Director of Strategy,
Advocacy and Learning,
Concern Worldwide,
Dublin 2.