Sierra Spiekerman
Human Rights Council
Ireland has generally shown lots of leadership in the international human rights
diplomacy. Human rights have been a central concern of our foreign policy since our
independence. There is no better policy available for us to conduct of international
affairs than the international treaties on human rights and fundamental freedoms. This
policy that we follow is much like the United States Human Rights Policy. Ireland also
being a part of the United Nations also signed the European Convention on Human
Right Act that gives practical form to certain rights to freedom. The importance of the
Convention lies not just in the rights it protects but it also is enforced and set out in the
universal declaration of human rights.
Ireland signed the Millennium Development Goals, which enforces equality,
education and improves maternal health as world leaders. We as Ireland would not
tolerate the extreme poverty and hunger, but we need to show more for our proportion
of the global partnership for development. The right to adequate food is realized when
every man, woman and child, alone or in community with others has physical and
economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement.
According to the United Nations Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon’s speech on The Food
Crisis: A Global Challenge he states “Food is not just a commodity, and agriculture is not
just a business both are central to survival.”
Humanitarian access is crucial in situations of armed conflict where civilians
including children are in desperate need of assistance. UNICEF Ireland saves and
protects the lives of children by supporting the work that UNICEF does in Ireland but also
outside of itself. We have the ability to focus on the world’s attention on the needs of
children and improve the lives of the most vulnerable children around the world. We
dedicate much time into a variety of ways: speaking to the media about what they
have seen, raising money on their behalf and influence others to help them also.
Indigenous peoples are those who inhabited or originated in a certain place
and geographically over time it changed into something new. Being someone from
different backgrounds would now see themselves as part of a larger nation not. We as
Ireland are mostly all Catholics. We do not agree with it because it brings violence
between us and Northern Ireland. We have tried to put laws in place but it never works
out for us.
"Denial of Humanitarian Act." Children and Armed Conflict. United Nations, n.d.
Web. <http://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/effects-of-conflict/six-graveviolations/denial-of-humanitarian-access/>.
"Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food." United Nations Human Rights. United
Nations, 1992. Web. 2013.
<http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Food/Pages/FoodIndex.aspx>.
"UNICEF." UNICEF's Approach in Humanitarian Action. United Nations, 13 Dec.
2013. Web. <http://www.unicef.org/emergencies/index_68712.html>.