Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 12 February 2009
150 Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the extent to which genocide has been reported throughout the continent of Africa in the past 12 months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5483/09]
View answerThe crime of genocide, as defined in international law, involves the committing of acts with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such. These acts may include killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Situations which fully meet this definition are thankfully extremely rare.
Nevertheless, there are a number of current situations in Africa which give rise to extreme concern. These include situations which have given rise to allegations of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity.
I am particularly concerned by the current situation in Darfur, where serious human rights abuses, in particular against women and children, have been a constant feature of the conflict. In July 2008, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) requested that a warrant be issued for the arrest of Sudanese President Al-Bashir on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur. It is now up to the appropriate bodies of the ICC and, where appropriate, the UN to determine what action they intend to take in response to the Prosecutor's request. International efforts to end this violence include support for African Union and United Nations mediation, and the presence of a joint AU-UN peacekeeping force.
The situation in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has also been a cause of much unease. Fighting involving DRC government forces and a range of rebel groups has had a devastating effect on the civilian population of the region, and more than 1 million people are currently displaced. Of particular concern are the continued atrocities committed by the Ugandan Rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army, in north-eastern DRC. This group, notorious for its use of child soldiers, has killed up to 900 civilians in the past few months, and caused the displacement of an estimated 150,000. Here too, the international community is working to bring about a negotiated end to the conflict in the Kivu provinces, and the UN is working to protect the civilian population through MONUC, its largest peacekeeping operation.
The international community recognises its responsibility to work to prevent genocide, and it is notable that the Constitutive Act of the African Union expressly endorses the right of the AU to intervene in a member state in respect of grave circumstances, including genocide. In addition, the 2005 World Summit of the United Nations acknowledged that the international community has a responsibility to protect against genocide, while nonetheless recognising that each State bears the most fundamental responsibility to protect its own population against serious crimes of this nature. This was reaffirmed in 2006 by UN Security Council Resolution 1674.
The international community also has a responsibility to ensure that serious crimes, including genocide, do not go unpunished. It was for the purpose of ending impunity for such crimes that the international community, by adopting the Rome Statute, created the International Criminal Court. Ireland has been a consistent and strong supporter of the ICC, recognising it as an essential means for bringing to justice those responsible for the most serious international crimes.
