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Council of Europe

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 June 2022

Thursday, 23 June 2022

Ceisteanna (126)

Emer Higgins

Ceist:

126. Deputy Emer Higgins asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the priorities during Ireland’s six-month presidency of the Council of Europe. [32902/22]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

I assumed the chair of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers in Turin on 20 May. It is the seventh time Ireland has held the Presidency and, in light of the war in Ukraine, a particularly important occasion to be at the helm of our continent’s leading human rights body.

The Council of Europe was the first multilateral organisation to expel the Russian Federation, following its unprovoked assault on Ukraine. In the wake of that unprecedented but essential step, the overarching goal of our Presidency term is to renew what we consider ‘‘the conscience of Europe’’, ensuring the institution does all it can to support democracy, human rights, and rule of law in Ukraine and to hold Russian authorities to account.

Within this framework, we have three particular priorities. First, as one of the Council’s founding state, we aim to reaffirm its ‘Founding Freedoms’, protecting human rights across the continent, above all through the effective functioning of the European Court of Human Rights. Second, in the face of rising illiberalism, we have set out to promote deliberative democracy and youth participation in the democratic processes, drawing on our experience with Citizens Assemblies. Finally, under the rubric of 'Fáilte', we will strive to foster a Europe of welcome, inclusion, and diversity, building on the social change Ireland has experienced since we last held the Presidency in 2000.

We are backing these priorities through clear financial commitments, significantly increasing our voluntary contributions to the Council across a range of projects, including supporting the work of the European Court of Human Rights, the Council’s revised Action Plan for Ukraine and its world-leading efforts to combat child sexual exploitation and eliminate all forms of gender-based violence.

We have also developed an extensive programme of engagement, with regular high-level visits to and from Strasbourg. On 7 June, the Taoiseach met leaders across the Council and called on the European Court of Human Rights to stress our commitment to the institution. I addressed the Council’s Parliamentary Assembly earlier this week, sharing a platform with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, leader of the Belarusian democratic movement. Minister Byrne will return to Strasbourg next week to address the Committee of Ministers’ Deputies, with other visits planned for the autumn.

Here in Ireland, we have already hosted two major Presidency forums on democratic engagement, in UCC and DCU respectively, as well as meetings of the Assembly’s Standing Committee and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities. A dozen other conferences are planned for the months ahead, of which three warrant special mention. In July, Minister Donohoe and I host the annual meeting of the Council of Europe’s Development Bank, which will focus on scaling the Bank’s support for Ukraine. In September, Minister McEntee will invite the Council’s 46 Justice Ministers to Dublin Castle to enhance our collective efforts to combat Domestic, Sexual & Gender-Based Violence across the continent. November will see Minister Brophy chair the European Conference on Global Education, where Member States will adopt a Dublin Declaration on how, through Global Education, we can build societal commitment to greater justice, sustainability, equity and human rights.

Our agenda is ambitious, but necessarily so, and complements our efforts at the UN Security Council, within the EU and across other multilateral fora to do all we can to support Ukraine and reinforce the values of democracy, human rights and rule of law which the Council of Europe embodies.

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