Micheál Martin, Taoiseach of Ireland,recalled that the UN was born after “a deliberate, industrial-scale genocide, aimed at obliterating Europe’s Jewish population, saw 6 million people murdered — a monstrous crime that remains unsurpassed in human history.”  He expressed concern over the constant pushback on human rights that has accelerated in recent years, against women’s rights and gender equality, against LGBTQ [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual and queer] rights.  “I call out the brutal Taliban for their denial of the most fundamental rights of Afghanistan’s women and girls,” he said.

The Irish people are enormously proud of 67 years of continuous UN peacekeeping, especially their engagement with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and close connection to Lebanon.  “In Sudan, a grave humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding,” he continued, recalling that more than 150,000 people are dead and 12 million are displaced. “Famine [was] declared throughout the country.  The world has failed Sudan,” he emphasized, adding that the perpetrators of war crimes in Sudan must be held to account and the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court should be extended to all of Sudan.

Saying that a “brutal and bloody war has returned to European soil” and tens of thousands of Ukrainians have been killed and maimed, he stressed that Moscow has deliberately and cynically targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure, with cities such as Mariupol, Kharkiv and Bakhmut bombed to rubble.  “President Putin has thumbed his nose at every attempt to bring about a ceasefire and negotiations, including those led by President Trump,” he said.  “There are no signs whatsoever that he is ready for peace.” As Putin has sought to test the resolve of Ukraine’s neighbours, sending drones into Polish and Romanian airspace, “he should know that it will not work”, he underscored, pledging to increase support for Ukraine.

Turning to Gaza, “a catastrophe of the most monumental and consequential kind”, he acknowledged those working in the most unimaginably difficult circumstances to preserve and sustain life and to treat the injured.  “At the heart of this vital effort have been UN agencies and workers, most especially UNRWA [United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East],” he said.  Recalling babies starving to death while aid rots at the border, as well as the deliberate targeting and destruction of schools, hospitals, mosques, cultural institutions and the killing of doctors, aid workers and journalists, he stated:  “We are all witnesses to the immense wrath of one of the world’s most modern and best-equipped armies brought to bear on a trapped and defenceless civilian population.”  Those responsible for the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel — which was a monstrous war crime — must be held to account, he said, adding that Hamas, not the Palestinian people, were responsible but no crime, however heinous, can justify genocide.