Sir, – Given the strong views expressed by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Ireland's record in respect of abortion, the Travelling community and other matters, it may be worth giving some focus to the human rights records of the 47 members of that body for the purposes of comparison ("Call for committee to enforce UN recommendations on human rights ", May 11th).
According to the 2015 report of Human Rights Watch, several UNHRC member states, including Burundi and Venezuela, have held rigged elections in the last year alone. Bolivia has sacked members of its supreme court who refused to rule in line with government policy. Mexico routinely uses waterboarding, electric shocks and sexual torture to secure confessions from criminal suspects. Russia continues to turn a blind eye to violence committed by homophobic vigilante groups and its state education system has conducted smear campaigns against gay employees.
Bangladesh has the fourth highest rate of child marriage in the world and has refused to introduce laws to abolish the practice. Congo implements state-sanctioned extrajudicial executions of criminals and political opponents. Ethiopia has abolished all press freedom and last year sent dozens of journalists into exile abroad.
Marital rape is legal in Qatar, and the penal code of the United Arab Emirates permits what is euphemistically described as “chastisement by a husband to his wife”, as long as he doesn’t leave any marks! India has a maternal death rate that is 25 times greater than that of Ireland’s.
Of the 47 members of the Human Rights Councils, 12 still implement the death penalty.
Is it not an outrage that a body comprised of representatives of these countries would seek to sit in judgment on Ireland and lecture us on human rights as if it were some kind of backwards banana republic? And worse still, that as they wag their fingers at us, NGOs and quangos here at home, such as Amnesty Ireland, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and the Irish Equality and Human Rights Commission, are cheering them on, congratulating them on their work?
In view of all of this, I genuinely have to wonder how Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald was able to keep a straight face during the UNHRC hearings!
With a rap sheet like this, Ireland should treat the opinions of the UNHRC with the absolute contempt they deserve. – Yours, etc,
BARRY WALSH,
Clontarf, Dublin 3.