Glimore on Irish chairmanship of OSCE

The Republic of Ireland is marking its Chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. As OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, the Irish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Eamon Gilmore, says Ireland will emphasise three priorities: These include peace building, modern security challenges and continuing threats to fundamental freedoms and human rights. In an interview with Vatican Radio, Mr. Gilmore outlined initiatives to promote religious tolerance and described relations between the Holy See and the Republic of Ireland as “very strong”:Listen:

Q: Eamon Gilmore, Minister for Foreign Affairs for the Republic of Ireland is also the leader of the Labour Party and the Chairperson for the duration of 2012 of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe which includes 58 states. Minister what are the aims of the Irish Chairmanship during 2012?

Gilmore: Well our first priority is to use our chairmanship to make a tangible contribution to the promotion of European peace and security and we will do this sharing our experience of over a decade of lasting peace in Northern Ireland. We have a good story to tell and one which others may want to hear about and for this reason we will be inviting key players from the Northern Ireland peace process to talk about how that peace was achieved and we want to share that work with other states of the OSCE.

Our second priority is to promote internet freedom in 2012. We are very concerned that basic rights such as freedom of expression and freedom of the media continue to be under threat in various parts of the OSCE. Our very clear view is that the same rights exist on-line as off-line and we will use the fact that Ireland is in many ways a headquarters for the internet industry, Facebook, Twitter, Google, they are all based here in Dublin, we will use that very fact to put an emphasis and focus on internet freedom.

And thirdly we want to prioritise good governance and we will in that context be highlighting the work of the Criminal Assets Bureau that we have in place here in Ireland, which deals with issues like money laundering, countering terrorist financing and so on…

Q: In various parts of the world, Christian minorities are persecuted such as Nigeria, Egypt etc..what can the OSCE do to achieve or consolidate religious freedom in the world?

Gilmore: The promotion and defence of religious freedom is very much a priority for the OSCE, and it is a particular priority for Ireland as chairperson of the OSCE. We will be proposing to address the question of freedom of religion and belief as one of the events we are organising as part of the OSCE’s human dimension during 2012. We hope to look at state strategies for protecting and promoting the fundamental right of religious belief and freedom. We will also support ongoing work in preventing and responding to intolerance and discrimination based on religious grounds and for that reason I have appointed three personal representatives to deal with the issue of religious freedom and to tackle discrimination on religious grounds. One of the personal representatives I have appointed is Judge Catherine McGuinness who is a distinguished former member of the Irish Supreme Court with a great track-record of combating discrimination and she will have particular responsibility for dealing with intolerance and discrimination against Christians.

Q: Ireland as you were saying before has particular experience in conflict resolution with Northern Ireland and 30 years of troubles brought to a conclusion. What are you hoping to organise in this field?

Gilmore: Well, one practical measure which we are proceeding with is a special event which will be held here in Dublin at the end of April. That event we intend to invite the main participants in the Northern Ireland peace process including some of the International people like Martti Ahtisaari and Senator George Mitchell who helped to broker the Northern Ireland peace process. We will have them, the participants from Northern Ireland, to talk about their experience in reaching agreement in building the peace. And we hope that other countries where there are protracted conflicts at the moment will be bale to learn from the experience of Northern Ireland and also probably take some hope from the fact that although the Northern Ireland conflict itself was a very long and protracted conflict those who were involved in making the peace in Northern Ireland had patience and they worked at it diligently over a long period of time and eventually secured that peace and that we want to share that experience with others.

Q: And just this week you were in the Middle East meeting the President of Israel and of the Palestinians. Did you find any hopes of conflict resolution there?

Gilmore: Well the purpose of my visit was to the ME was first of all to inform myself of the situation on the ground in particular the effect of the blockade on Gaza, the impact of the settlements in the West Bank and also the security concerns that Israel has about its own territory and its own population. I met with President Abbas, Prime Minister Netanyahu and the respective foreign ministers. I hope that the visit helped somewhat in reassuring both sides that they have the support of the Irish Government and EU to reach an understanding and get negotiations underway in order to build a secure peace.

Q: And finally, Minister something that belongs to your special competence. As you know there has been al of debate about the closure of the Irish Embassy to the Holy See. What can you tell us about this. Can we hope for a new opening soon?

Gilmore: Well as you know Ireland has been going through a very difficult economic period at the moment the consequence of that is a reduction in the amount of money that is available to all government departments, including the department of foreign affairs, and also a very significant reduction in the number of staff that we have available to us. We have a very small diplomatic team spread around the world we conducted a review of our diplomatic missions and our missions overseas and decided that regrettably at this time we would have to close three of those. One of those three was the embassy to the Holy See. I want to emphasise of course that our diplomatic relations with the Holy See remain very strong. We have appointed the most senior diplomat in our department the secretary general of our department to be the Irish Ambassador to the Holy See and he will serve us at that function from Dublin. I would hope in the course of time, as our financial and economic circumstances improve, that we can revisit the whole question of where our missions are, including the question of our mission to the Holy See.