THE GOVERNMENT’S reaction to calls from a European watchdog to prevent rendition flights through Irish airports is “unacceptable”, a leading human rights organisation has said.
Colm O’Gorman of Amnesty International said it was “outrageous” to think that Ireland was potentially aiding and abetting US rendition flights.
His comments come following the release of a report by the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, Thomas Hammarberg, which urges Ireland to “take effective measures” to prevent “extraordinary renditions” taking place “through Irish territory and airspace”.
Mr Hammarberg says in the report that countries allowing such flights to use their airports for stopovers in central Europe are guilty of “passive collusion”.
Ireland was named in a Council of Europe report two years ago as allegedly allowing Shannon airport to be used as a refuelling stop for CIA aircraft taking suspects from America to be interrogated, indefinitely detained or tortured.
In a formal response to the report, the Government insisted it was totally opposed to rendition flights and torture, and that “categoric” US assurances of no rendition flights using Irish territory are enough.
Mr O’Gorman said these assurances were not enough to ensure human rights are not being affected on such flights.
“They continue to maintain that assurances from the US administration are a sufficient guarantee that illegal kidnapping and torture are not being facilitated through Irish airspace.
“It is not enough for the Irish Government on behalf of its people to abdicate its responsibility in this way merely because other governments may be doing so,” he said.
The report also criticises the Government for failing to live up to its own commitment in the Children’s Act 2001 to discontinue the imprisonment of children and move to a detention school model.
It expresses concerns about interim measures in which teenage offenders are housed with adult prisoners in detention facilities.
In response to the report, Fr Tony O’Riordan of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice called on the Government to abandon plans to build a facility for young offenders as part of the proposed Thornton Hall prison complex.
“An international voice has joined the host of domestic groups who have been urging the Government to rethink this disastrous and retrograde proposal to locate children alongside adults in what will be the largest prison in the country . . . Safer communities will only come about if the emphasis is on giving them a leg up, not locking them up,” Fr O’Riordan said.
The report also criticises the refusal of politicians to legislate to clarify the conditions under which abortion can be legally carried out in the State.
