Sophistry of denying nations sovereignty

The UN special reprehensive for international migration, Peter Sutherland, says “sovereignty is an absolute illusion that has to be put behind us. The days of hiding behind borders and fences has long gone.”

Mr Sutherland seems to think that human beings are as neutral as packaged goods and finance though they clearly are not. The statement is also in breach of the recognition of UN charters, Article 2.7 and Article 2.1 that states that the UN organisation is ‘’based on the principle of sovereign equality of all its members’’. His concepts might have some merit if every nation and sovereign jurisdiction upheld the idea of the Sovereign Man as emphasised by constitutional republicanism, but this is sadly not the case.

Nor indeed, are such concepts and ideas necessarily held as core values by the mass of immigrants. If it were so there would hardly be any tension or anxiety in welcoming immigrants.

Should the concept of the Sovereign Man be universally held there would be little requirement for mass immigration. That of course is a dream — one Mr Sutherland ought to recognise. And it may well have been the dream of the foundation of the UN — an acknowledgement and recognition of the great thinkers of the enlightenment and universal human rights. Those principles that are today hamstrung by a score of intellectual sophists that inhabit the mindsets of our educational institutions and inhibit the necessary requirement of true assimilation.

John McGrath

Hollyford,

Co Tipperary