We must all work together to protect democracy, says Catherine Connolly

Ireland’s president has urged the international community to work together to protect democracy.

Catherine Connolly warned that democracy is “under attack” as she addressed an international conference in Spain during her first official overseas trip since her election last October.

Spanish premier Pedro Sanchez and Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were among those in the audience at the Meeting in Defence of Democracy.

Ms Connolly described a “critically important” gathering, playing tribute to two leaders “who have shown the political courage this moment demands”.

“President Sanchez and President Lula deserve our recognition, and our gratitude, for placing the defence of democracy at the centre of the international agenda,” she said.

“Democracy has played a vital role in the history of civilisation. It has transformed the world from power structures of empire, colonialism and conquest to self-governance, sovereignty and peaceful co-existence.

“Democracy itself, however, is now under attack.”

Ms Connolly called for “honest reflection” on how this point has been reached, having “moved from the crystal-clear language of the UN charter championing human rights to the crystal-clear language that now champions ‘might is right’”.

“The answer, of course, is not comfortable for any of us. Over 80 years, it has happened through accommodation, through the quiet retirement of inconvenient principles, and through our collective willingness to treat violations by powerful states as exceptional cases rather than the precedents they have become,” she said.

“That acquiescence has allowed the institutions of the United Nations to be undermined by some and treated with contempt by others.

“We have an obligation to stand together to defend the very institutions established to uphold human rights without qualification following the horrors of two world wars. We must work together to deepen international co-operation, and to nurture and develop conditions for lasting peace.”

Ms Connolly backed support and reform of the institutions of the UN, adding her wish for a woman to succeed UN secretary general Antonio Guterres and deliver the reform.

She said Ireland is “uniquely placed to offer a valuable perspective as a neutral, post-famine, post-colonial republic”.

“We believe that multilateralism is not a luxury, it is a necessity,” she said.

“It is how we uphold international law. It is how we protect human rights. It is how we respond to the crises that no country can face alone – climate change, displacement, poverty and the normalisation of war – all of which are inextricably linked. It is the only way to implement the sustainable development goals.

“Ireland’s candidacy for election to the United Nations Human Rights Council for the term 2027 to 2029 reflects our commitment to the universal nature and the individuality of human rights, the value we place on the multilateral system.

“We must work together, to deliver peace, to strengthen our international institutions and to reclaim the language of rights, international law and human dignity.

“Let us remember what was highlighted by former UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjold, ‘that the United Nations was not created in order to bring us to heaven, but in order to save us from hell’.”