I move:
That, bearing in mind:
- the death of 5.2 million people over a ten-year period from war-related causes, the largest in any conflict since the Second World War;
- the illegal occupation of the city of Goma by the militia known as M23;
- the displacement of some 2.2 million people in the DRC;
- the forced movement of thousands of people to neighbouring countries;
- the seventeenfold increase in the number of rapes of civilians between 2004 and 2008;
- the ongoing recruitment of child soldiers, some as young as eight years of age;
- the increasing humanitarian crisis;
- the absence of essential infrastructure like roads, schools and health centres;
- the pillage by militias, mercenaries and traders of the country’s enormous mineral wealth;
- the collapse of the kind of norms required for a functioning society.
Seanad Éireann calls for:
- an immediate end to the conflict and the disarmament of all militias, most particularly the M23 group;
- the prioritisation of and re-engagement with existing political agreements;
- the protection of all civilians and implementation of stabilisation mechanisms;
- a new political process to address the drivers of the conflict, one that will involve the European Union, EU; the United Nations Security Council, UNSC; the African Union, AU; and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, ICGLR;
- neighbouring countries, most notably Rwanda and Uganda, to comply with international law, respect human rights and disengage from any destabilisation activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo;
- the Government of the DRC to end corruption and respect human rights;
- a renewed and strengthened mandate for MONUSCO, the UN force in the DRC;
- those alleged to have committed war crimes not to be given refuge and to be turned over to the International Criminal Court;
- a commitment to the full implementation of the EU transparency directive and accounting directives;
calls on the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to ensure:
- that the resolution of the current conflict in the DRC remains a key objective of Ireland's six-month Presidency of the European Union; and
- that ongoing violations of human rights within the DRC will be raised by the Minister and his officials at the UN Human Rights Council to which Ireland has just been elected;
and given the scale and intensity of the conflict, regrets the absence of any significant reporting by Irish and international media of the conflict and calls for greater political and media engagement with the conflict.
I am very happy to move the motion. I understand it is being taken without debate, but I believe I am correct in saying the full motion will be printed in the Official Report; therefore, it will be taken as read. I thank the Leader for his generosity and courtesy in this regard. It is very important that the issue was discussed by the foreign affairs committee. Some 5.2 million people have died, which is close to the number of those who died in the Holocaust. Certain specific actions are requested by politicians, the international community and the media and I hope this motion will be useful. Again, I am very grateful to the Leader and I am confident that the motion will be passed unanimously by the House.
