Amnesty Ireland head criticises Ireland's EU presidency

Ireland’s EU presidency has come in for criticism for its lack of progress on women and Roma rights.

Amnesty International's mid-term review of Ireland's EU presidency acknowledged successes by the Irish Government in driving forward the debate on protecting human rights within the European Union.

However Executive director of Amnesty International Ireland, Colm O'Gorman, hit out at the presidency’s failure to champion EU action on female genital mutilation (FGM).

He said: "The EU promised a strategy on violence against women, including FGM three years ago but here has been very little progress there.

"We would have hoped the Irish presidency would have backed calls for EU action on FGM, not least in recent years because we have seen good legislation introduced here (in Ireland).

"That hasn't happened and we have had very little from the Irish presidency on this important women's rights issue and we need to see something happening in the next number of months."