Air Navigation and Transport (Arms Embargo) Bill 2024 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-22
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Frances Black (IND), Industrial and Commercial Panel

We are at a moment where the international rules-based order is under profound strain. The ICJ has issued clear findings, as my colleague has said. The UN Charter has been breached. If our legislation responds only to the specific and the named while ignoring the systemic, we are not upholding international law, we are selectively applying it. Selective application is not a principle; it is politics dressed up as law. The International Court of Justice, the highest court in the world, has found it plausible that rights protected under the Genocide Convention have been violated and has issued multiple orders of provisional measures. The court found it had legal standing to hear the case and determined that South Africa's claims were plausible. It indicated that it is incumbent on Israel to comply with its obligations under the United Nations Charter. Those orders, unfortunately, have not been complied with.
I really feel like Ireland's credibility as a voice for small nations and occupied peoples rests on consistency. The moment we begin carving out expectations based on which country is doing the breaching, we surrender the moral authority that gives Irish advocacy its force internationally. This amendment ensures our arms embargo is principle-led, not case by case. It says that Ireland will not be a conduit for weaponry to any state found by the highest international courts to have violated its obligations. It is not really a radical position; it is the logical consequence of taking international law seriously.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-22/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-22