Senator Alice-Mary Higgins calls for peace-building and dialogue in Catalonia
Senator Alice-Mary Higgins
After the police violence witnessed on October 1st in Catalonia over the contested independence referendum, I spoke in the Seanad about the dangers of authoritarianism and the need for Ireland to step up and play it's role as a peace-building nation.
The Government must actively urge the EU to engage in mediation in the region. Europe urgently needs to move beyond the securitisation agenda which has dominated in recent years and re-invest in the work of peace-building, social infrastructure, democracy and dialogue.