Trade Missions and Human Rights

Issued on February 18, 2014 at 11:38 AM

Protest at Qatar's failure to uphold workers rights

Following the January controversy regarding the lack of a human rights dimension to the Irish Government trade mission to the gulf, Congress wrote to the Taoiseach expressing our concern. The letter concluded that: "One could draw the conclusion that Ireland’s trade interests are now to trump our human rights commitments. I trust that this is not in fact the case and that the current review of our foreign policy will reiterate such a stance and perhaps begin to develop policy and mechanisms to ensure the integration of our trade and human rights concerns in future trade delegation visits."

The Taoiseach has since responded to our letter, disagreeing with our stance and reiterating the position that trade missions were not the appropriate context for raising human rights issues: "To be effective in raising human rights issues with other states, it must be in an appropriate way and at the right juncture, so that concerns are taken seriously."

Pictures of the conditions in labour campa in Qatar available via ITUC Flickr account here