Human Rights in China: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2021-12-01 ============================================================ Colm Brophy (FG), Dublin South-West I thank the Acting Chairperson. I am very pleased today to contribute to this important debate. Ireland has a proud history of supporting the protection of human rights around the world. We are a small country but we are an independent voice on the international stage, prioritising the most vulnerable and marginalised. We are committed to the universality, indivisibility and interrelatedness of all human rights and to accountability for human rights violations and abuses. I welcome the opportunity to discuss our engagement with China and will set out how Ireland has been actively engaging with China, including on issues of concern. I will set out how Ireland engages also with the island of Taiwan. Our values will always remain at the forefront and weave through this Government's engagement with all partners. We have found that the most effective way to advocate for change is to engage directly with relevant authorities in concert with our partners in multilateral fora. The situation in Xinjiang resonates with the Irish public, the Government and clearly here in the Oireachtas and with the Senators today. On engaging with this issue we remain pro-human rights. We are not anti-China. As we challenge Chinese policy we do not seek to undermine Chinese sovereignty. Rather, we emphasise the obligation on the Chinese authorities to act in a manner which respects international human rights obligations. The evidence-based reports regarding serious human rights breaches in Xinjiang tell us that this has not been the case. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, had the opportunity to outline Ireland's position when he visited China in May and met with foreign minister and state councillor, Wang Yi. At that meeting, Deputy Coveney outlined our evidence-based approach and raised our concerns in an open and candid manner. We also maintain concern about the situation in Hong Kong and the manner in which the national security law is being implemented has already given rise to concerns that many people there no longer have the freedom to express themselves. The changes to the relation system to the legislative council reduce democratic representation. I can confirm that Hong Kong was another topic that the Minister, Deputy Coveney, discussed during his visit to China. In co-ordination with EU partners Ireland has also taken practical steps including suspension of Ireland's extradition agreement with Hong Kong which clearly signals our concerns on the rule of law. At the Human Rights Council in September Ireland joined a statement of the 26 EU member states, urging Beijing and Hong Kong administrations to respect the rule of law and Hong Kong's autonomy under the One Country, Two Systems principle. The EU made a similar statement at the UN General Assembly which Ireland supported. I want to underline that the primary objective in all our human rights engagement with China remains to find meaningful improvements on the ground, including in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. I also wish to speak, particularly in regard to Senator McDowell's contribution, on the issue of Oireachtas engagement with the Taipei representative office and with others in Taiwan. I want to be clear that the Government supports the rights of Members of the Oireachtas to engage with external parties, as they see appropriate. It remains the case that the Government is committed to the one-China policy, as I have already mentioned and outlined above. Ireland has committed to promoting a multilateral rules-based approach to engagement in the region, anchored in international law. Ireland contributed to the European Union's new Indo-Pacific strategy, which we welcome as an opportunity to contribute to the region's stability, prosperity and sustainable development. Together with our fellow EU member states, we will continue to monitor tensions in the region and to encourage those with influence to ward against further escalation. I take this opportunity, in response to the Senator who raised the recent newspaper article about the Irish citizen formerly working for the UN, to point out there has been engagement between both the current and former Irish ambassadors in Geneva and that individual. It is an ongoing process and it is not really appropriate for me to comment further on that. The engagement has taken place. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2021-12-01/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:53+00:00 Sitting date: 2021-12-01