Statement by President Higgins following meeting with Senator Bernie Sanders
Date: Mon 26th May, 2025 | 18:06
“Statements made by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, founded in 1949 and of which 46 countries are a member, and of which Ireland was a founding member, are carefully considered statements of principle and have immense importance.
One thinks of the singular contribution at the end of the austerity period that followed the economic problems of 2008 by the then Secretary General, Thorbjørn Jagland. It examined the differential impact of the austerity measures on different sections of the European public.
That the current Secretary General, Alain Berset, has had in the last few days to draw public attention to the requests by no less than nine members for a weakening of the protections that are there to protect migrants in the fundamental text of the European Convention on Human Rights should concern us all.
The Secretary General’s words were direct:
Upholding the independence and impartiality of the Court is our bedrock.
Debate is healthy, but politicizing the Court is not. In a society governed by the rule of law, no judiciary should face political pressure. Institutions that protect fundamental rights cannot bend to political cycles. If they do, we risk eroding the very stability they were built to ensure. The Court must not be weaponized — neither against governments, nor by them.”
Considering this statement in the context of what has been a very valuable visit from United States Senator Bernie Sanders, who has drawn the public’s attention to the implications of oligarchic rule, makes these interactions all the more urgent.
We are at a crucial moment for the European Union. Those of us who believe in the possibilities of the European Union and its basic values must be concerned at how the political discourse in Europe is being made vulnerable, narrow and inadequate.
In the European street, publics will quite rightly be asking that priority be given to protecting the basic, hard-won rights and conditions of living, and the extension of human rights, rather than silence which is a collusion on actions that with impunity are costing lives, death and suffering.
It is good that Senator Sanders has been addressing large sections of the public, and in particular organised trade union members, on what is at stake for workers everywhere and history will thank him for it.”