Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern has huffed and puffed over the premature release of a report from a European Parliament committee concerning the "extraordinary rendition" of terrorist suspects by the United States through EU airports.
His annoyance at the discourtesy shown was understandable, because the Minister is due to give evidence before the committee today. But that should not disguise the Government's failure to vigorously discharge its obligations under human rights conventions to oppose the use of torture and the inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners.
The Minister, along with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Tánaiste Michael McDowell, has justified inactivity on the grounds of diplomatic assurances received from the US that Shannon airport was not used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to transport prisoners to Guantanamo Bay and to other centres for incarceration and interrogation. But such assurances have been rejected by the United Nations and the Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) as inadequate in fulfilling the Government's duty to prevent the risk of torture.
On two occasions within the past year, the IHRC has advised the Government that diplomatic assurances would have to be legally enforceable and accompanied by an effective regime of monitoring and inspection before we would meet our constitutional and international human rights obligations. Those representations have effectively been rejected. As the Taoiseach told the Dáil last year: because of the absolute assurances received, the Government will continue to follow long-standing practice and accept in good faith the details supplied by US authorities as being accurate.
That is not sufficient in the present circumstances. Human rights have come under sustained assault in recent years because of the so-called "War on Terror". The US administration has redefined the term "torture" so that it no longer covers brutal interrogation practices that are regarded as torture by the United Nations. The CIA has operated secret prisons. And it has moved suspects to countries where torture is routine. In view of such developments, friends of the US have a responsibility to protect established human values and to shout 'stop'. Just as the US Supreme Court has done.
We know that some of the 147 aircraft leased by the CIA that stopped at Shannon were used in the "rendition" of prisoners. But we have been assured that prisoners were not transported through Shannon. There is no hard evidence pointing to an abuse of Irish facilities. But, as a sovereign State, we have a responsibility that goes beyond diplomatic niceties and our own airspace. Torture is unacceptable in any circumstances and must be opposed wherever it takes place, lest we be accused of passive collaboration. In meeting its obligations, the Government can accept the veracity of past assurances given by the US. But it should initiate a system of random checks for all future flights.