Human Rights - an Integral part of Irish Foreign Policy: Address by Minister Kitt
Minister of State for Overseas Development and Human Rights, Tom Kitt TD, today spoke at the opening meeting of the Joint Department of Foreign Affairs / NGO Committee on Human Rights.
In addressing the Committee he stated that:
“My appointment as Minister of State with Special Responsibility for Human Rights again underlines the commitment of the government to human rights as an integral dimension of Irish foreign policy. Coupling that responsibility with Overseas Development was a logical step since it is through our aid programmes that we make practical our vindication of human rights internationally. Ireland Aid spends a large proporation of its budget in funding projects with a human rights dimension. Indeed, we are now the sixth largest individual contributor to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.”
Welcoming the decision to hold this opening meeting, the Minister said:
“This Committee provides a forum in which organisations and individuals working in Ireland to advance the protection of human rights internationally can communicate directly with those who decide and carry out Irish foreign policy.”
The Minister also said:
“Over the past twenty years hundreds of human rights NGOs have formed to document and publicise abuses, to lobby governments, deliver aid and arouse public opinion. These range from the large international NGOs, to the small local organisations founded in response to a specific violation. Irrespective of their memberships or geographic spread, they all have a valuable role to play in keeping human rights issues on the agenda of governments.”
Note to Editors:
Successive Governments have attached much importance to the role of the NGO community in the human rights area. As an expression of that, and as a reflection of the ever growing level of contacts taking place between the Department and the NGO community, this Committee was established, comprising representatives of human rights NGOs and experts, together with officers of the Department. The purpose of the Committee is to provide a formal framework for a regular exchange of views between the Department and representatives of the NGO community. It is hoped that the Committee can meet three to four times per year. In addition, an Annual Forum on Human Rights, to which all interested NGOs are invited, is held annually.
Members of the Joint Department of Foreign Affairs / NGO Committee on Human Rights, include:
Non-Governmental Organisations
Mr Conal O'Caoimh, Comhlámh
Ms Mary Lawlor, Frontline
Ms Siobhán Ni Chulacháin, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
Mr Hans Zomer, Dóchas
Ms Anastasia Crickley, National Consultative Committee on Racism & Interculturalism (NCCRI)
Ms Angela Kerrins (rep by Ms Cliona O'Neill)Rehabilitation International
Mr Seán Love & Ms Mella Magee, Amnesty International
Mr Paddy McGuiness, Concern
Ms Aisling Reidy, Irish Council for Civil Liberties
Ms Neva Khan, GOAL
Mr Michael O'Brien, Trocáire
Individual Experts/Academics
Mr Paul Burns
Mr Jerome Connolly (former member Irish Commission on Justice & Peace)
Prof. William Schabas (Professor of law & Director of the Irish Centre for Human Right, NUIG)
Dr. Attracta Ingram (Department of Politics, UCD)
