In his final appearance at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Senator Paul Gavan directly confronted the Secretary General of the Council over its failure to condemn the 16-month campaign of genocide by the Israeli State against the people of Gaza.

Addressing Secretary General Alain Berset on behalf of the Unified European Left, Senator Gavan said:

“After 16 months of relentless attacks on the people of Gaza, resulting in the slaughter of at least 46,000 men, women and children, how do you explain the failure of any office holder in this human rights organisation to condemn these acts of genocide, or condemn those Council of Europe member states, namely Germany, Britain and Italy who have supplied weapons to enabled this genocide to take place?”

Secretary General Berset failed to answer the question, instead making a reference to welcome the current temporary ceasefire, and suggesting that the Council needed to “take time to assess all of this” while claiming that office holders have been “strongly concerned” for some time. He did concede that actions in the region amounted to a “catastrophic development for human rights.”

Regrettably, Mt Berset did not address the issue of the supply of weapons to Israel by member states at all.

Speaking following the exchange, Senator Gavan added:

“There has been a catastrophic failure by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and indeed all office holders to condemn the mass slaughter of the Palestinian people. Worse still in effect this Assembly gave a green light in January 2024 for the genocide to continue until such time as Hamas was dismantled.

“These actions have done untold damage to the reputation of the Council of Europe as a defender of human rights. In these circumstances, all I can do is speak truth to power, and I tried again to do this today as I have throughout my seven years in PACE.”