Conor Lenihan, Département des Affaires étrangères d'Irlande

Distinguished Human Rights Defenders, Ladies and Gentlemen

On behalf of the Government, I would like to congratulate you on the work you have done here over the last three days. I hope it has been fruitful.

I have been asked to deliver a few words this morning to mark the closing of your conference.

As the Minister with responsibility for human rights I am delighted to be asked to speak to you. There are three angles I want to cover this morning.

Firstly I want you to have a sense of why the Irish government feels it is important to support Frontline and this Conference, and how broad concern for this issue is reflected in some of our other foreign policy concerns and engagements.

Secondly there are also some important points that flow from your own discussions here over the last few days that I want to highlight.

Finally I want to say a few words about the linkages between my dual responsibilities as a Minister with responsibility for development cooperation and for human rights.

Why is it important for us to stand with you?

It is widely acknowledged that the life of a human rights defender is an increasingly precarious one. Risks to safety and security have become, unfortunately, almost routine challenges faced by human rights defenders the world over.

I am glad that you have been able during your gathering here to discuss ways to minimise these risks.

My government supports Frontline precisely because of the practical work it does in areas like protection and security.

Because you have chosen to break the silence which too often surrounds human rights abuses, you have often and unjustly been placed in the frame of suffering yourselves.

As Minister with responsibility for human rights I want to take this opportunity to restate that this is wrong and indeed scandalous. There is no other way to describe it.

I condemn without reservation harassment of human rights defenders.

No-one should be placed in positions of danger, exclusion or marginalisation for protecting and promoting the rights of others.

I want a clear message to go out that we support your freedom of conscience. We support your freedom of expression. We support your freedom of movement.

This conference, and the useful work you have done here, underlines the need for us all to work to diminish the risks faced by human rights defenders.

We will continue to speak up for human rights defenders. I have no hesitation in doing so. We will continue to seek a better world for those who act to promote the rights of others.

A world where human rights defenders are allowed to play their proper role in societies. A world where human rights defenders have the right to act as monitors and promoters of healthy democracies. A world with free, open and accountable systems of governance.

One important building block in constructing such a world would be a strong UN Human Rights Council.

While there was agreement at the recent UN Summit in principle on such a Council there was no agreement on the nuts and bolts of such a body.

As Minister responsible for Human Rights, I was profoundly disappointed by the outcome of the recent UN Summit.

I share your great disappointment that this did not happen. However I want to reiterate that Ireland will be pushing strongly for a quick and effective result from the General Assembly discussions underway about this issue.

I hope that when the Human Rights Council comes into being it will have a weighty role to play. It will be essential that those who know a situation best, and those who know the best means of protection, can have their input in international deliberation on the subject. You are those people.

That is why it is the duty of those countries who wish to protect Human Rights and Human Rights Defenders to ensure that at least the established levels of civil society participation are maintained in the new Human Rights Council.

With your efforts, with strong civil society representation at the Human Rights Council, and with attention on human rights, security and development at an all time high, hopefully the challenges you encounter will start to diminish.

I know that yesterday you had a chance to discuss implementation of the EU’s Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders. I look forward to hearing about how we can make progress in this area.

With the challenge of implementation come opportunities. I know you have also heard and discussed this angle during your deliberations.

I hope that the discussions you have had here will feed into the process of strengthening the Guidelines further.

I hope that the Guidelines can prove more successful in addressing the various threats and challenges which you daily face.

Where there is scope for improvement on implementation we are open to working with you to achieve this.

Earlier this week I had an opportunity to meet some women human rights defenders here for this event. We are all well aware of the impact of gender-based violence and its prevalence in conflict situations.

Women and children are disproportionately affected by conflict and violence. Women human rights defenders sometimes suffer in this way precisely because of their activities in pursuit of human rights.

I know you have looked at potential counter-strategies for dealing with the particular difficulties faced by women human rights defenders. This may be an area where Development Cooperation Ireland can be supportive.

As Minister with responsibility for both Development Cooperation and Human Rights, I am keen that the close policy partnership which we have with Frontline is nurtured and developed in a way that is informed by the kind of discussions you have had here.

In this I am conscious of the need for coherence between human rights policies and the overall development programme.

The Government recently announced a new date of 2012 for reaching the UN target of 0.7% of GNP on overseas development assistance. This represents an estimated €120 million extra in the ODA budget in 2006.

By the target year of 2012, Ireland will be spending €1.5 billion annually on overseas development assistance. This is a huge endeavour and is a truly historic commitment.

We hope that Ireland’s progress in terms of such significant increases in financial commitments to overseas development assistance will be matched by our partners in Europe and across the world.

The programmes and policies of Development Cooperation Ireland, the Government’s programme of overseas development assistance, are measured against their contribution to the reduction of poverty and against the progress they achieve towards development targets.

Within this, governance is recognised in all programmes and strategies as a priority area of engagement. Ireland’s development partnerships rest on the importance of fostering a culture of respect for democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

As the Taoiseach said in his recent address to the UN General Assembly, “we must work with developing countries to improve governance, promote human rights, increase transparency and stamp out corruption”.

In my address to the Commission on Human Rights earlier this year, I also said that to be effective in advancing the cause of Human Rights we must be effective in other areas too. We must be strong in conflict prevention and in crisis management.

The Development Cooperation Ireland programme recognises the interlinkages between security, human rights and development. We are all aware of the huge impact of conflict on vulnerable populations – displacement, fear, hunger result.

Greater numbers of people than ever before are now affected by conflict, particularly in Africa which is the focus of Ireland’s development programme. It is clear that conflict retards, indeed reverses, development.

The Development Cooperation Ireland Human Rights and Democratisation scheme is a practical example of support for human rights projects at the grass-roots level.

Our support recognizes one important reality; human rights activity and development goals have a common objective: realising the potential of each and every individual to the full.

Some examples of the commitments under the scheme are: support to a programme on rights of children in Colombia, protection for orphans and vulnerable children in China, support to those campaigning against land violations against older people in Ghana. Persons with disabilities receive support in places as far apart as Honduras and India.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo citizens are being encouraged to participate in conflict resolution and to demand good governance.

This shows how the scheme provides crucial support at grassroots level. It is often at that level that individuals can be assisted to understand and achieve fully their human rights. Which is one of the many reasons the work of human rights defenders is so important to us under the scheme: You endeavour every day to assist people in understanding and achieving their human rights fully.

The exchange between human rights defenders, as the forefront of civil society, and Governments or representative bodies allows for a more knowledgeable debate, involving first hand experience, and consequently stronger, more effective programming results.

I am currently leading a process of consultation on a White Paper on Ireland’s development programme.

The role of civil society – and of human right defenders – will be important in the framework of an expanded aid programme and, I expect, will also be significant in the context of the forthcoming White Paper.

But back to today.

The opportunity you have had during your time in Dublin has been effectively exploited – you have taken on the opportunity to identify and address challenges. That is why you are here and that is why we continue to support you. Frontline and other organisations can help you develop further approaches to effective protection and impact.

I can assure you of the ongoing strong support of the Irish Government. We will continue to work closely with Frontline to strengthen our respective inputs to the protection and promotion of the role of human rights defenders globally.