Ireland should ‘leverage’ UN security council to help persecuted Christians

Ireland’s recently won seat on the United Nations Security Council can be an opportunity to “leverage” the council to support persecuted Christians, according to Aid to the Church in Need Ireland (ACN).

Last week it was announced that Ireland secured enough votes, along with Norway, to win a two-year non-permanent seat.

Dr Michael Kinsella, Director of ACN, said: “It would be a wonderful gift of solidarity to the persecuted Christians and an acknowledgment of what they’re suffering under tyrannical regimes, to leverage the security council position for good.”

He said it was “an influential position” and comes with a degree of international recognition. “I hope they highlight religious freedom worldwide as being something that’s a good thing to defend and a good thing to promote,” Dr Kinsella said.

Erosion

“I hope that they specifically highlight the persecution of Christians because persecution against Christians represents three things, it represents an erosion of human rights, an erosion of international stability and it represents an attack on freedom of speech and thought.

“All of which Ireland as a small democracy, now having a seat at the table of the security council, is meant to defend. Really there’s no other group of people on the planet that suffers as much as Christians.”

The security council has 15 members, five are permanent, the US, UK, France, Russia and China, and there are 10 non-permanent seats, filled on a rotating basis.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the seat would be used to advance “peace and security, conflict resolution, reconciliation, climate action, sustainable development, and gender equality”.