Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06DUBLIN1111
2006-09-27 15:08:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Dublin
Cable title:  

IRELAND AND THE UN HRC: DARFUR IS THE HIGHEST

Tags:  PHUM UN EI 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO2085
PP RUEHAG
DE RUEHDL #1111 2701508
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 271508Z SEP 06
FM AMEMBASSY DUBLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7497
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES PRIORITY
RUEHZJ/HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 0590
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0159
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L DUBLIN 001111 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/31/2015
TAGS: PHUM UN EI
SUBJECT: IRELAND AND THE UN HRC: DARFUR IS THE HIGHEST
PRIORITY

REF: STATE 157283

Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission Jonathan Benton; Reasons 1.4 (B)
and (D).

C O N F I D E N T I A L DUBLIN 001111

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/31/2015
TAGS: PHUM UN EI
SUBJECT: IRELAND AND THE UN HRC: DARFUR IS THE HIGHEST
PRIORITY

REF: STATE 157283

Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission Jonathan Benton; Reasons 1.4 (B)
and (D).


1. (C) The Irish Government largely agrees with USG views on
the UN Human Rights Council (HRC),but sees Darfur as the
highest priority for the HRC's second session, according to
Eamon MacAodha, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)
Counsellor for Human Rights, to whom Pol/Econ Section Chief
delivered reftel demarche on September 25. MacAodha observed
that Ireland, like other EU Member States, recognized the
seriousness of the human rights situations in Burma and North
Korea, the U.S. priorities for the HRC's second session. He
added, however, that the scale of human rights violations in
Darfur "would make it incredible" if the HRC did not address
Sudan as the first order of business. (Foreign Minister
Dermot Ahern visited Darfur and Khartoum in July and made
Sudan the headline issue in his address to the UN General
Assembly on September 26.) MacAodha cited the need to
balance HRC country-specific actions against the push for
consensus on the establishment of the HRC's framework of
operations, another important objective for the second
session. He anticipated that horse-trading on
country-specific actions would be necessary to save a
consensual approach to the framework. He also noted that the
Western Europe and Others Group (WEOG) had fewer
representatives on the HRC compared to the former Commission
on Human Rights, another factor that constrained what WEOG
members might be able to achieve in the second session.


2. (C) MacAodha pointed out that Ireland, like the United
States, supported the proposed Universal Periodic Review and
the preservation of Special Rapporteurs and country mandates.
Ireland held that the Periodic Review should focus on
technical cooperation and productive results, inviting NGO
input but avoiding duplication of existing human rights
monitoring mechanisms. MacAodha highlighted the need to
determine Periodic Review procedures within the next twelve
months, in order to leave enough time to review current HRC
members whose terms would expire by that deadline. Ireland,
he added, agreed with the U.S. view that an exclusive focus
on Israel in the HRC's second session would be
counterproductive. He also predicted that Ireland would wait
until 2013, the next time it would hold the EU presidency,
before seeking candidacy for the HRC.
KENNY