I thank the Chairman for his kind words of welcome. As I understand members already have the text of my presentation I will not read every word of it but I will go through it.
I thank the Chairman and members of the committee for inviting me to speak to the committee. I propose to start by explaining what the UN Human Rights Council is and why Ireland is seeking election at this time. I will also touch on some of the issues we would like to prioritise if we succeed in the election.
As the committee is aware, Ireland is seeking election to the United Nations Human Rights Council for the period 2013 to 2015. This is our first time to seek election to what is the UN's principal human rights body. If elected, Ireland would serve on the council for the three years I have mentioned.
We expect that the election will take place in the autumn. At the UN, Ireland belongs to the Western Europe and Others Elector Group, the WEOG. Three seats will become available in the WEOG for the period 2013-2015. We are competing with four other states, EU partners, Germany, Greece and Sweden, and the United States. I would not for a moment underestimate the strength of each of our competitors but we have a strong reputation in the human rights field and a good chance of winning one of the three seats.
The UN Human Rights Council is a subsidiary body of the UN General Assembly with responsibility for the promotion and protection of human rights. It was established by General Assembly in 2006 and meets in Geneva.
The Council is mandated to: promote universal respect for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all; address situations of violations of human rights; promote human rights education, technical assistance and capacity-building; serve as a forum for dialogue on human rights thematic issues; make recommendations to the UN General Assembly for the further development of international law in the field of human rights; promote the full implementation of human rights obligations undertaken by member states; and undertake a universal periodic review, UPR, of the fulfilment by each state of its human rights obligations. The council has 47 members. Ireland has been an active observer since the council was set up in 2006 and as an observer we have taken an active part in the proceedings without having any voting rights.
The council meets in three regular sessions per year, usually in March, June and September. It can also meet in special session. The 2 December 2011 special session on Syria established a mandate for a special rapporteur on the human rights situation in that country.
The forthcoming regular session, which will be the 19th session of the council, will take place in Geneva from 27 February to 23 March 2012. The agenda will include items on the following: torture; human rights defenders; freedom of religion or belief; the rights of the child; the right to development; the human rights of persons with disabilities; as well as the human rights situations in North Korea, Burma, Syria, Libya and Iran.
It might be helpful to explain the three kinds of events which take place at the council's regular sessions: interactive dialogues; general debates; and panel discussions. Interactive dialogues are held once a year with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Navi Pillay, and the council's special rapporteurs. General debates are held on human rights situations in countries requiring the council's attention and on a number of broader human rights issues. Panel discussions at HRC19, the 19th session of the council, will include: the protection of human rights in the context of HIV and AIDS; human rights through sport; and freedom of expression on the Internet.
Observer states may table draft resolutions but voting in the council is, of course, restricted to full members. If Ireland is successfully elected to the council, we can play a more substantial role in the promotion and protection of human rights across the globe by helping to shape the programme of work of the council, by influencing the informal negotiations where much of the work is carried out and, of course, by voting. If we are elected, the first six months of our Human Rights Council term will overlap with our Presidency of the European Union from January to June 2013. This will be an advantage as only council members can move certain business items at council sessions and if we are not a council member we would have to devolve that function to another EU council member.
EU member states are elected to the council in their national capacity. They have a responsibility to co-ordinate with their EU partners on issues before the council including, where appropriate, assisting in outreach to non-EU countries. The responsibility to co-ordinate positions with partners does not exclude the taking of initiatives. In June 2010, at HRC17, Ireland co-sponsored a draft resolution on human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity which was passed by 23 votes to 19, with 3 abstentions. This was the first time that a UN resolution explicitly acknowledged human rights protection as covering sexual orientation and the resolution demonstrates the increasing commitment across the international community to the promotion and protection of the human rights of all people, irrespective of their sexual orientation and gender identity. South Africa took the lead in presenting the draft resolution and Ireland was part of a cross-regional group of states that worked in support of this historic resolution.
With the permission of the Chair, I would like to mention the universal periodic review, or UPR, procedure. The UPR is one of the most important and innovative aspects of the council's work. It is a process whereby once every four years the council examines the human rights records of each UN member, asking each state to set out what actions they are taking to improve the domestic human rights situation in their own countries and precisely how they are implementing their human rights commitments. Apart from South Sudan which only became an independent state in July 2011, each of the UN's member states, including Ireland, has now been reviewed. At the end of the first cycle, we could say that the UPR has been a broadly successful initiative.
Key questions will arise, however, during the second phase when states will be asked what they have done to implement the recommendations from the first cycle. The second cycle will commence later this year. Ireland's human rights record was reviewed under the UPR on 6 October 2011. The Minister for Justice and Equality and Minister for Defence, Deputy Alan Shatter, led the Irish delegation. Our review highlighted Ireland's positive and forward approach to human rights at home.
One may ask the reason Ireland is seeking election to the UN Human Rights Council. Ireland firmly believes in the community of nations working together to advance the values of the UN Charter. We have long championed the vital role of the United Nations in the promotion and protection of human rights. The issue of global human rights resonates strongly with the Irish public. It is also a core element of Ireland's foreign policy - and has been under successive Governments.
The protection of human rights is firmly knitted into our development assistance programme, our contribution to international peacekeeping and our participation in international organisations. Our commitment to human rights has been shaped by our historical experience, our experience as a once colonised people and, more recently, our understanding of conflict resolution. These experiences are not unique to Ireland but they do give us an almost unique perspective as a member of the Western Europe and Others Group. If elected to the council, we would hope to use that experience to work with countries in other regions in a spirit of co-operation.
Seeking to become a member of the UN Human Rights Council is consistent with the commitment in the programme for Government "to restore Ireland's standing as a respected and influential member of the European Union and as part of the wider international community". If elected, Ireland would seek to prioritise a number of themes: freedom of religion or belief; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights (LGBT); the protection of space for civil society and human rights defenders; the promotion of gender equality; and the strengthening of the UN human rights treaty monitoring body system.
We would also seek to promote greater human rights protections in the Middle East, Iran, Burma and North Korea. We would draw on our historical experience and our conviction that development, peace and security, and human rights are interlinked and mutually reinforcing. As a council member, we would promote a comprehensive approach to crisis resolution which factors in all these elements. We would also highlight the importance of ensuring that human rights considerations underpin all areas of development - with a particular focus on combating hunger, health and education.
Our diplomatic system is fully engaged. Our Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, Ambassador Anne Anderson, is lobbying her counterparts to seek support for our candidature. The work of our mission in New York is actively supported by Ireland's Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Gerard Corr. Geneva is where the Human Rights Council meets and where the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is based. In addition to our missions to the United Nations, Ireland's network of embassies and staff at headquarters are actively promoting Ireland's candidature in contacts with third countries. The campaign itself has not involved any additional resources and Ireland has not appointed a travelling ambassador or special envoy to lobby internationally on our behalf. Face-to-face ministerial contact has been invaluable in the campaign to date. The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste have presented Ireland's candidature to their counterparts on the margins of international meetings and conferences. In addition, lobbying at ministerial level has been undertaken by a number of Minsters and Ministers of State at conferences and in bilateral contacts with Ministers from other countries. During his recent visit to Ethiopia, the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and TradeDeputy Joe Costello, attended the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, an important annual gathering of African leaders, where he met many African government ministers and he explained why Ireland is seeking election at this time and what we would hope to accomplish, if elected.
As I have mentioned, Ireland is seeking one of three seats available in the Western Europe and Others Group. On the election day, each member state in the UN General Assembly in New York will be given a ballot paper for each regional group that has seats to be filled. The names of the candidate states are not listed. Instead, each permanent representative writes the names of the states from each region that she or he intends to vote for. There is a threshold of approximately 97 votes which a member state must pass to be eligible for election. Passing this threshold does not in itself guarantee election as it is possible that all candidates could pass this threshold. If that happens, the top three candidates would be declared elected unless one or more of those three is on less than 97 votes, in which case the election will progress to a second round.
The second and, if necessary, the third and fourth rounds, are restricted in the sense that for each available seat member states are restricted to cast their vote from a list of candidate who were in the first round and that number of candidates is limited to twice the number of vacancies.
This is a tough election but we are committed to making every possible endeavour to succeed as a sign of our commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights on the international stage. I hope that my remarks have given members some sense of the Human Rights Council itself, and our reasons for seeking election.
I thank the Chairman and members of the committee. I am happy to answer questions.
