Government should be held to account

The Irish Human Rights Commission and the Women’s Human Rights Alliance are fully justified in their requests to the UN Human Rights Council to call on the Irish Government to address the issue of reparation for survivors of the Magdalene laundries.

While this is now an historical rather than an ongoing current issue, restorative justice and some accountability is still necessary.

Of even more importance are more serious recent and current human rights abuses in which past and present Irish governments have been complicit by authorising US military use of Shannon airport and the refuelling of CIA and other aircraft that were used in the so-called “extraordinary rendition” programme that resulted in the torture of many prisoners.