Sir, – The recent assertion by Minister for Enterprise Richard Bruton that human rights activists "should get real" (Opinion, January 23th) is both insulting and disgusting.
Human rights activists are precisely those who see the world as it really is. They are moral exemplars who cannot and will not ignore murder and rape, torture and exploitation. They feel compelled to expose such atrocities and warn us all of rulers and regimes responsible for same. It is the Minister who needs to get real. Doing business with criminals is ultimately bad business. Collaborating with oppressive regimes is ultimately bad business. Mr Bruton’s version of “realism”, of “realpolitik”, is social Darwinism at its best.
The recent fate of RCSI exemplifies how an Irish multinational institution can fall foul of a brutal regime; profits are up and business is good, but the reputation of the college is tarnished permanently. Irish trained surgeon and RCSI alumni, Ali Alekri remains in jail in Bahrain. Medical facilities in Bahrain are militarised – including the RCSI King Hamad hospital. Another colleague, Ebrahim Demastani who was sentenced to three years for sending an injured man to hospital, has been tortured and denied medical treatment in a Bahrain jail. RCSI recently stated it was not for it to tell the regime how to run its country. Many other graduates and staff of RCSI Bahrain continue to suffer and feel abandoned by their college.
I have been to the UN Human Rights Council and to the International Criminal Court and I have learned that those organisations are not empowered to force change in the real world. Real change comes from a civil society informed by human rights.
Real change comes when people vote to remove from power those responsible for corruption and collaboration with corrupt regimes. In Minister for Enterprise Richard Bruton’s corporate world, the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many. In the real world, addressing the suffering of the many must outweigh the needs of the few. – Yours, etc,
Prof DAMIAN
Mc CORMACK,
Eccles Street, Dublin 1.