Ireland will remain a friend, supporter, and strong voice for human rights and those who defend them around the world.
New york – Rashad Alkhader From – UN
The Irish Ambassador to the United Nations, Mr. Fergal Mythen, said.
On the occasion of Ireland’s nomination
United Nations Human Rights Council 2027-2029
Level of consensus and why we go with that Good evening, everyone to our down here this evening. Dee Blair, it’s a real pleasure to welcome you all as Ireland launches. All my launches is candidacy for the UN Human Rights Council. Welcome. We want you
It’s a heavy conflict. It’s a heavy time. It’s a heavy time, but it’s still important to come together to share glass of wine for Guinness, to birthday, to listen to some Irish music, and just to be together on this cold winter evening. I want to give a particular shout out to our traditional musicians, performed by Johnny Cuomo, Isaac, Alison, may Flanagan and maybe around the
Collison, I also want to acknowledge that we are in the middle of a project which we happen to sponsor. Is to draw upon projects. All these paintings and drawings around here are based on a very simple idea and a very powerful idea. Basically, it’s bringing children who are causing conflict situations, in war porn situations divided cross border communities and to trade drawings, to communicate across the barriers that are imposed on them, and to build bridges across communities. So it’s a delighted that we can be proud of this exhibition, and to get a moment, we’re going to take a big look. In a sense, what these children are saying is we want a better world, a fair world, a more peaceful world, a more inclusive world, a more sustainable world. And I suppose those are the themes that we’re going to talk about this evening in a relatively brief way, as we launch this campaign. But first of all, I want to invite our newly Minister of Foreign Affairs and FYE Minister Helen, our very first female influence in foreign affairs. It only took 400 years, so it’s a bit slow, but it’s a great honor for me to welcome her. She did this on the very first hour in our ministry. All to the Minister of Atlantic. Good evening, everyone. I want to thank you
for joining us for the official campaign for membership of the Human Rights Council from 27 to 2021 this event is taking place against the backdrop of children’s article from a private home delivering a message
intertwined, and tonight, reiterate that human rights will continue to settle to Ireland’s foreign policy. During Parliament week in September, we announced the TMS priorities for our Human Rights Council campaign. These priorities will guide us in the campaign, and we hope during our council membership. They are underpinned by a deep commitment to the universality of human rights and to international law. Our priorities are the promotion and protection of civil society, space and human rights defenders, women’s rights and gender equality, the rights of LGBTIQ plus persons, the right to food and to the whites of persons with disabilities and conflict. We’ve chosen these priorities because now more than ever, the centrality of civil society to our
work cannot be overstated. Ensuring equality and true diversity
strengthens each and every one of us. Ireland is and will continue to be a consistent voice and a committed partner for human rights. We must continue to support those furthest behind first, including the most vulnerable times of conflict and crisis. For that reason, we want to shine a spotlight on the right to food and the rights of persons with disabilities in conflict situations, the UN is built on three equal pillars of peace and security, sustainable development and human rights. We will work to ensure it remains so. Never has there been a greater need for the international human rights system. Ireland will continue to be a friend, an advocate and a vigorous voice for human rights and for those who defend human rights right across the world,
dear friends and colleagues, just building on what the minister said there, I suppose I Want to set up why Ireland is running for the Human Rights Council and why we want the vote of each and every one of their delegations. It’s a year of anniversaries un established, 70 years since Ireland and 15 other nations joined the UN in 1955 and almost 20 years since the Human Rights Council was established. First, and against that backdrop and against the challenging moment we are living in. Ireland wants to use this moment to reiterate our commitment, our D commitment, to the UN and its three pillars into a lasers, indivisible, inseparable and indispensable peace and secure development and human rights in doing in doing so, we’re not blind to the reality of the world we’re living in today. We’re not naive. We can see, you know, that the conflict has proliferated in a way that we just didn’t think imaginable 10 years ago, in far too many situations, from Afghanistan to Ukraine, from Gaza to Sudan and many other situation many of our locations, we see a serious regard for international human rights law and international humanitarian law. We’ve also seen that progress is lagging in implementation Sustainable Development Goals. We see that poverty and conflict and climate change are deeply impacting. Disasters, are driving inequality, are increasing disability in compounding, and interlinked ways, and in a word that we came to the most basic of human needs derived of agriculture is often undermined and threatened. And at the same time, we see a shrinking civic space. We see a silence in critical voices. We see a pushback, in some ways, inserted pushback against the principles of equity, equality and non discrimination. Non discrimination, and we think we can do so much better as an international community. So we recognize the deep responsibility that comes with managing the Human Rights Council. We’re committed to playing our part in shouldering this responsibility, shouldering this burden in the spirit of dialog and discussion on solidarity and partnership, we know to our own I Island experience that human rights bedrock peaceful stable across the societies, human rights are key in building the foundation of peace, justice and reconciliation on the art environment. We also see that the human rights based approach underpins and makes our development assistance programs much more impactful, and that also includes working in an active way, in active engagement with local civil society. Our own human rights framework domestically, like all member states here, is far from perfect. We are mature as all employers. We’re a majority society which embraces equality, inclusion and the full diversity of human life and experience society based on civic, political and economic well being, all are important. All are key. We still have a long way to go, but we have learned on our journey over 100 years of independence that the protection of most of human rights enables much more open and inclusive society that can deliver for all our people to enter his onto this establishment, the Human Rights Council, has, we believe, become a mature institution that makes a substantial contribution to human rights worldwide. It’s known that work deepens our understanding of human rights principles. The Universal Periodic Review provides state reform that share both experiences and its challenges and underpins many forms of technical assistance in its country. Specific work, the council shines a light on serious violations and human rights emergencies. Only last week, it had an American session situation in Sudan, and to its investigation mechanisms, it acts as a powerful force for accountability. So Ireland has put it forward for elections to the Human Rights Council to play our part under all these headings and in all the work of the council and the priority team that we’ve set out that a minister set out in the video will guide us, underpin at all times by our consistent commitment to international human rights law and the universality of human rights, and to conclude we’d be glad to hear, I just want to say darkest moments in our own island story, from the darkest moments in the conflict and the island of Ireland, those of us who were lucky enough to work with this process often sustained ourselves to dark days with what we call a duty of hope. And that’s not just wishful thinking. It’s not sitting under Tracee and Kumbaya. It’s actually, it’s actually a really, really active, active obligation, a shared obligation, to believe and to work to make things better. And that’s what we want to do as a member of the Human Rights Council, to work with all of you and all the members on the council as a shared obligation to make this world a better place for all our peoples. As Minister McGee said, we will continue to be a consistent voice and a committed voice and a committed partner for human rights. We will continue to stand up for human rights, and we will continue to stand up for our United Nations, and is on this basis that we see your support, all of your support, for our candidacy for the Human Rights Council. 2027 2029 Thank you very much. Please.
