Press Release on Norway Attacks

LABOUR YOUTH CONDEMNS VIOLENCE IN NORWAY

While the concrete details are yet to emerge, Labour Youth note with great sadness the terrible acts of violence which took place today in Oslo and Utoya, Norway.

The loss of any human life is a tragedy, and we offer our sincerest sympathy and condolences to the people of Norway as they come to terms with this tragic event.

As young socialists and social-democrats, we are particularly horrified by the callous and brutal murder of our comrades in the Workers' Youth League of Norway.

Our thoughts are with the victims' families, their friends and with those who love them. We are united in our shock and in our sadness. We share in their grief.

We condemn those who came to bring violence to peaceful places today. Violence like we witnessed today builds nothing. It only destroys.

Those who want to change the world by murdering the innocent are always bound to fail.

We send every good wish to the people who have been affected by these terrible events, and hope that the perpetrators of this violence are brought to justice.

In solidarity, and in memory of our lost comrades.

LABOUR YOUTH WELCOMES TANAISTE'S PLEDGE TO SUPPORT BELARUSIAN DEMOCRACY

Labour Youth was excited this weekend to hear the leader of the Labour Party, An Tainiste and Foreign Minister, Eamon Gilmore pledge his support for Belarusian democracy.

Speaking last Saturday at the Tom Johnson Summer School in Kilkenny, Mr. Gilmore pledged to work steadily in his capacity as Ireland's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to impose pressure on the dictatorial regime of Alexander Lukashenko, with the end goal being the creation of meaningful democracy in Belarus.

This pledge was delivered in the light of Labour Youth's awarding of the Jim Kemmy Award for Social Justice to young members of MSD-MH, a Belarusian social-democratic party who have been actively campaigning for public awareness and resistance to the undemocratic and repressive regime of Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994. Under the current regime, fraudulent elections and crackdowns on dissent are regular, and human rights abuses have been widespread. Labour Youth sincerely hopes that we can look forward to an emerging democratic transition for Belarus in the near future, and that we can see the end of Europe's last dictatorship.

Labour Youth is working closely with allied organisations to lend their support and assistance in the encouragement of emergent democracy in the Republic of Belarus, and as such welcomes the Tainiste's pledge to support this process in his capacity as Foreign Minister.

ENDS

Michael D Higgins making his last speech in the Dail

Deputy Ciara Conway speaking on the proposed Childrens' Rights Referendum