1. (C) Ireland will not support countries seeking membership
to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) that have been
sanctioned by the UN Security Council for human rights
violations, said Eamonn MacAodha, Director of the Human
Rights Unit at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), to
whom Emboff delivered demarche points and a copy of reftel
letter for Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern on April 13
(original was sent to Foreign Minister Ahern April 11).
Additionally, MacAodha stated that the GOI understands the
USG decision not to run for a seat on the Council this year,
but supports U.S. membership as soon as possible, operating
under the general principle that the "U.S. on is better than
the U.S. off."



2. (C) MacAodha told Emboff that the GOI was tracking the
election process closely and would likely follow the
coordinated EU voting parameters being developed by the EU
Working Group on Human Rights. He does not expect the EU
parameters to be country-specific, but rather a set of
criteria by which the human rights records of countries
seeking membership on the HRC should be measured. The
working group is set to issue conclusions after its April 20
meeting, at which point MacAodha said he would give Emboff a
better sense of how Ireland would vote.



3. (C) Ireland is not running for membership on the Council
this year, said MacAodha, though various Irish NGOs will
likely soon discuss with the DFA's Human Rights Unit the
prospects for, and timing of, Ireland's future bid for
membership. In deciding whether to pursue membership, noted
MacAodha, the GOI will gauge the Council's agenda and take
into account the fact that Ireland recently completed a term
on the Human Rights Commission. The GOI will also consider
the merits of waiting until its next EU Presidency (in
roughly ten years' time), which would give its membership
more political weight.
BENTON