The defenders and those who render

Marvel at the hypocrisy of our politicians! On one hand Dermot Aherne blathering on about what an inspiration human rights defenders are. From the Irish Times

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern today told a massive gathering of human rights defenders in central Dublin they were an inspiration to the world.

"You represent a combination of practical idealism and courage which is an inspiration to others — in your countries and also internationally," he said.

"The impact of your work is felt not only by those whose rights you seek to vindicate but also by the rest of the world who you inspire to act."

Human Rights defenders are inspirational of course. They do a dangerous, necessary, wonderful job. The Government isn't always praising their work to the skies.

In fact the Minister's words ring hollow. He is a member of a government that violates the rights of others. Our government facilitates the 'rendering' of suspects through our borders - Extraordinary Rendition or how to cooperate with the Americans to break international law so we don't lose our 'special friendship'.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights, you know, Mary Robinson's old position, came to Dublin to rebuke Bertie for human rights violations. Disgusted yet? I am.

The Government should search US military planes landing at Shannon airport to confirm they are not being used for rendition flights, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour has said.

"I stressed that it's not just the direct complicity that is of significance but also either neglect or wilful blindness to what's going on.

"I think the optimum protection is very much to try to verify, to go beyond assurances. Ideally, there should be random searches just to give some assurance that the commitments made by another country are respected right through the chain of command," she said.

"I don't think it's diplomatically offensive to conduct random or occasional searches to verify."...

Ms Arbour said that while there were signs of a rowing back in the US, some of the damage caused by certain counter-terrorism measures could "be relatively permanent".

One of the main areas of concern, she said, was the attempt to redefine torture.

"The erosion of the standard against torture is very disturbing. More and more there is this discourse that there may be cases where it is okay.

"Also, there is a questioning of what torture really is. I think it's going to take some time to go back to what it was."...

"They say to me, 'why are you wasting your time talking to us about this issue, why aren't you in Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo, why aren't you talking to them?'

"There is also this idea that the West/the US promote human rights issues that suit their agenda and they have declared themselves to be in a realm of non-accountability. In human rights promotion, the concept of universality and equal treatment is pretty fundamental and now it's very much jeopardised." (Source)

And this is what our government facilitates... a bureaucracy that is attempting to redefine torture and use it as a tool for extracting information. It is commonly known that torture is an extremely inefficient way of extracting information. In must cases, people torture because they like the power and because they can. Torture is not justifiable under any circumstances.

Hypocrisy. Follow the High Commissioner's advice, Bertie. It's good advice and it's good for the country, not to be so closely associated with torture.