Amnesty scathes EU presidency inaction
Ireland’s European Union presidency must be used to prioritise human rights, Amnesty International said today.
The group said the 25-bloc EU has not lived up to its potential to protect human rights.
“Governments are using the so-called war on terrorism to undermine human rights in the name of security,” said Ann Marlborough, Amnesty’s EU presidency officer.
The 2004 annual report showed there were no effective mechanisms in the EU for accountability towards human rights abuses.
Ms Marlborough said when Ireland’s term in presidency finishes at the end of June, its potential to affect the EU will also change.
At the launch of their hard-hitting report in Dublin, Ms Marlborough also called on the Government to bring up human rights during the EU and US summit which will take place in Dromoland Castle in Co Clare on June 25 and 26.
“Ireland hasn’t taken the US to fault at all in relation to its position on Israel,” she said.
“We want them to raise concerns about US policy on human rights and records on human rights in relation to Iraq and Afghanistan.
“That is a thing Ireland needs to address in its EU presidency.”
The report also indicated widespread racism across the EU to which governments have contributed.
“Racism, discrimination and intolerance are also a major concern across the EU as a whole,” she added.
Sean Love, executive director of Amnesty International in Ireland, said the timing of the upcoming referendum to change the constitution to alter our immigration policy is inappropriate.
“Every country has probably some sort of racism. It is an issue here like every country in Europe, and probably every country in the world.
“Our position is we should be learning the best practice from countries that have already gone through this,” Mr Love added.
“The state isn’t properly responsible to immigrants and if you look around, we have not an single member of another ethnic minority in the Oireachtas or hardly any in say the gardaí.”
The group said a high point of the year was the establishment of the International Criminal Court, which was strongly supported by the Government, with an Irish judge appointed to it.
The report, which covered 157 countries over the last year, found governments and armed groups have destroyed the human rights of ordinary people.
It strongly condemned armed groups responsible for attacks, including the March 11 bombings in Madrid and the blasts in the United Nations building in Iraq, as providing a new threat to international justice.
The 340-page report said the violations by states and individual groups formed the most sustained attack on human rights and international humanitarian law in the last half a century.
“Governments are losing their moral compass, sacrificing the global values of human rights in a blind pursuit of security.
“This failure of leadership is a dangerous concession to armed groups," said Mr Love, as he strongly reprimanded the US and UK governments for their actions in Iraq.
It said some detention conditions were inhuman and degrading. It also detailed the unlawful killing of civilians by Coalition troops and armed groups in Iraq.
