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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 9 Jun 1988

Vol. 381 No. 9

Written Answers. - UN Committee on Human Rights in Cuba.

29.

asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs in relation to the United Nations Committee on Human Rights in Cuba which was established at the request of the Cuban Government, who will represent Ireland on the committee; if the Irish representative is also considered to be representing other European countries; those to whom the Irish representative will be reporting; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

During its last session in Geneva in March 1988 the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, of which Ireland is a member, decided to accept an invitation from the Government of Cuba that its Chairman and five members of the Commission, appointed following regional consultations, should visit Cuba in order to observe the human rights situation there. The Commission also decided that the delegation should prepare a report to be submitted for consideration by the Commission which would decide on the manner in which the report was to be examined.

Following consultations in the Western European and Others Group, to which Ireland belongs, Ireland's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Ambassador Michael Lillis was nominated by that group as a member of the delegation and that nomination was subsequently formally approved by the Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights. Ambassador Lillis will be acting in an individual and not in a representative capacity. He will not be representing other European countries.

The Government were pleased to agree to Ambassador Lillis's undertaking of this task. We hope that the delegation's visit will assist the Commission in its examination of the situation with regard to human rights in Cuba.

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