April 2015 75
A
CADEMICS, policymakers and
NGOs met in early April at the
Royal Irish Academy to exam-
ine how Ireland’s new foreign policy,
‘Global Island, can be put into practice.
The striking thing about this policy is
an extraordinary clash between the two
key sections: that on ‘Our Values’ which
establishes a framework of values for
foreign policy, and that onOur Prosper-
itywhich focuses on policy in relation
to economic growth, investment, trade
and exports. The two sections might well
have been written by different people.
The themes of inequality, poverty
and climate change gure prominently
in the contextual analysis. The values
expressed in the rst half of the policy
are ones which any human-rights advo-
cate would welcome, particularly against
an international backdrop where human
rights are increasingly under attack.
Ireland remains committed to core
values of fairness, justice, security and
sustainability. It commits to standing up
for human rights, civil society space, and
promoting greater gender equality. The
long commitment to multilateralism,
particularly to the UN, is re-stated, as is
the intention to stand for the UN Secu-
rity Council for 2021-22.
The signature policy of pover-
ty-focused overseas aid is outlined.
Reference is made to the Governments
commitment to the UN target of giving
0.7% of Gross National Income in over-
seas aid. Unfortunately, no time-frame
for achieving this forty-year-old target
is included and progress is once again
linked to economic improvement.
While the re-statement of values is
important, a chasm divides it and the
main thrust of the document, which
relates to economic growth, investment,
trade and exports – as if these somehow
stand outside the elaborated frame-
work of values. The entire focus of the
second part of the policy is on how invig-
orated economic diplomacy, including
enhanced marketing of our national day,
can generate prosperity for Ireland.
There is a complete absence of any
reference to values and to the need for
policy coherence if we are to address
the fact that much of our prosperity is
still built on the backs of the poor and
of the planet. The policy refers to more
integrated and skilled economic diplo-
macy, for example, but has no mention
of human rights or of the importance of
not compromising principles outlined in
the ‘our valuessection in the quest for
greater trade and investment.
Three issues come into particularly
sharp relief. How does Irelands corpora-
tion tax regime square with our fairness
values? How do our expansionist agri-
cultural policies around beef and dairy
square with our sustainability values?
How do our trade missions square
with our long-standing commitment to
engage on human-rights issues?
The failure of the values framework
to inform the chapter on the removal of
trade barriers is particularly concern-
ing given the increasing influence of
transnational finance over international
governance structures.
The reference to the Transatlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership is
worrying. It is pitched simply as a posi-
tive development, with no reference to
the serious concerns, expressed by civil
society in particular, about the inclusion
of an Investor-State Dispute Settlement
mechanism, and the implications of this
for human rights and for climate-change
mitigation.
There is perhaps an implicit accept-
ance within Government of the views
expressed by Minister Richard Bruton
in an Irish Times article (23rd January
2014) that trade missions are not the
place to raise human rights, that we do
human rights in certain multilateral fora
such as the UN Human Rights Coun-
cil, but that bilateral trade missions,
even with unsavoury regimes, are not
the place to argue about human rights.
In other words, Irish jobs trump every
other concern and value.
The values at the core of this policy
are the right ones. However, the litmus
test of values is how they are integrated
across policy and applied in the tough
choices between policies. There needs
to be clear accountability mechanisms
to assess that process.
There are two glimmers of hope for
policy coherence. The first is a cross-
departmental committee on human
rights. This committee has met once.
How its agenda is shaped and acted on
remains to be seen. The second is the
consultation on a National Action Plan
on Business and Human Rights. Hope-
fully these two initiatives will promote
the values framework. •
Lorna Gold is Head of Policy and Advocacy
with Trócaire
‘Values’ clash with a ‘prosperity’ imperative in Ireland’s new foreign-policy
framework. By Lorna Gold
Fracture
Minister
Richard Bruton
says that trade
missions are
not the place
to raise human
rights
the prosperity/
values dynamic in
Irish foreign policy
INTERNATIONAL Foreign Policy

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