This presentation has been valuable because Colombia has fallen off the agenda of recent parliamentary discussions, which is a great pity. A disturbing development has taken place in which a Swiss NGO has been accused by the Colombian Government of working with FARC.
I concur with the Acting Chairman's remark that the Council of Europe is important as a source of human rights discourse across a number of important issues. Its discussions on Plan Colombia were positive in terms of seeking the maximum amount of information. Ms Abozaglo may have already been in contact with the Irish Centre for Human Rights, headed by Professor William Shabas, with which I have an association.
Unusually for a committee of the Oireachtas, the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs voted against Plan Colombia because it was particularly concerned about the European Union's component of aid. In effect, the US component of Plan Colombia was dispossessing people in vast areas, leaving the EU to sweep up the consequences of a plan that was opposed by many in the European Parliament.
The restructuring of the United Nations Human Rights Committee has ushered us into a new era. Mr. Bolton accepted the new structures on behalf of the United States, although he was not enthusiastic about the changes. However, I am unclear on whether the mechanisms previously used by intervention agencies have survived into the new structure. Under the old Geneva structure, they were able to take initiatives to address problems. When discussions on the new committee were taking place, the issue arose of whether the mechanisms would survive.
It is disturbing that the International Labour Organisation has not been more active in trying to establish independent international investigations into trade union matters. We are dancing around bushes in respect of this issue. For example, trade union leaders who seek to organise workers in factories are being assassinated in their homes, allowing those in control of the private armies to deny responsibility on the basis that murders did not take place on the factory floor. These assassinations continue to take place in Bogota and several other places.
We have received reports of peasants being harassed by FARC, on one hand, and moved by the army, on the other. While Trócaire's work with peasants seeking to survive in difficult circumstances is supported by Members of the Oireachtas from all parties, as long as some parts of Colombia are controlled by FARC and while the army carries out intervention operations in others, many communities will continue to live in terror. We heard presentations on that issue and I find the current situation in Colombia deeply depressing because it is clear that Plan Colombia has simply migrated the drug problem, while also dispossessing peasants and defoliating the countryside. The Colombian Government has not made significant efforts to reacquire legitimacy through elections or in terms of an independent judiciary. The people in the middle, those involved with human rights work, are regarded as oppositional forces. Now we learn that some international agencies are regarded as supporters of FARC because of their criticism of the treatment of detainees.
I wish ABColombia well in its work and am sure it can count on the sub-committee's support. On Ms Abozaglo's specific points, there has been support from the sub-committee for the UN position. It makes sense to hold a review and the Acting Chairman's suggestion on attracting the interest of bodies across other parliaments is helpful. Decisions arrived at under the London-Cartagena process are not always revisited by the sub-committee.
It should be made clear that the sub-committee and the wider joint committee are not interested in human rights in a legal sense. The broader social and economic definition of human rights is what motivates most members of both.
