Volume 4

July - September 2002

Human rights in Northern Ireland

STATEMENT BY THE NORTHERN IRELAND HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION TO THE UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

  58th Session, Agenda Item 18(b), Geneva, April 2002

Chairperson,

1.         The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has been in existence since March 1999 and is one of the bodies helping to secure the peace process in Northern Ireland in the wake of the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement of 1998. 

2.         In February 2001 the Commission made 25 recommendations to the UK Government on how the Commission's role could be enhanced to make it more effective. Over a year later the Commission is still awaiting the Government's response to these recommendations. 

3.            Meanwhile the Commission has pursued through the courts its claim that it be allowed to intervene in court cases.  Its case was heard last month by the UK's highest court, the House of Lords.  We were pleased that the UK Government intervened in the case to support our claim. 

4.         The Government responded to our requests for additional resources last year by allocating us a further £548,000.  But for the current financial year we have been asked to plan for a budget which in real terms is smaller than that with which we began working three years ago. 

5.         From time to time the Commission is obstructed in its work by its inability to compel any person to disclose information about alleged human rights abuses.  Despite developing a generally good relationship with the reformed Police Service of Northern Ireland, we have been denied access to important police documents. We have not been able to see information used by the Government to justify the renewal of emergency powers exclusive to Northern Ireland and we were not consulted prior to the publication of the Government's proposed anti-terrorism legislation following the events of 11 September.  We continue to believe that the Government has broken the promise it made in 1998 to "fully co-operate" with the Commission in its investigations.  

6.         The Commission has repeated its call for a full-scale judicial inquiry into the murder of solicitor Patrick Finucane in 1989.  It is increasingly concerned that a similar inquiry may be required into the murders of the Loyalist Billy Wright in 1997 and solicitor Rosemary Nelson in 1999.  The Government promised in August 2001 that it would appoint an internationally respected judge to look again at these and other cases, but no such appointment has yet been made. 

7.         The Commission is pleased that the Police Ombudsman's office is now fully operational and that the new Police Service and Policing Board are functioning.  We have been able to influence the content of the proposed Code of Ethics for the new Police Service as well as some other police policy documents.  

8.         We regret to have to report that the British Government's response to judgements of the European Court of Human Rights on the right to life in May 2001 has been slow and inadequate.  We believe that much more needs to be done to ensure that deaths in Northern Ireland, especially those alleged to have been caused by members of the security forces, are promptly, thoroughly and independently investigated in line with the European Court's requirements. 

9.         During the last four months the UK Government has been piloting through Parliament a Bill to reform the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland.  While there is much in the Bill which the Commission commends, we remain seriously disappointed that it fails to meet internationally accepted standards on a public prosecutor's duty to give reasons for not pursuing a prosecution and the handling of young people who have allegedly committed a crime. 

10.       The Commission recently published the report of its first formal investigation, which was into the way children are treated in juvenile justice centres.  We concluded that there were breaches of human rights in areas such as the education and health care provided to such children. 

11.       The Commission remains deeply concerned at the level of paramilitary violence in Northern Ireland.  In 2001 there were at least 17 murders and 331 so-called "punishment" attacks committed by paramilitaries.  Several of the victims of these attacks were children.  The Commission has brought together the relevant agencies in Northern Ireland in an attempt to devise a strategy which will help reduce the incidence of such human rights abuses. 

12.       The Commission has continued its more general work on victims' rights and will report on the matter next month.  The Commission is also engaged on a review of mental health law and practice and on research into discrimination against older persons in the health system.   

13.       The Commission has continued to assist many people with their court proceedings.  The cases involve issues such as the compatibility of the mental health review tribunal rules with the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to compensation of persons who have been wrongfully denied access to a solicitor while in police custody and the right to life of young persons held in a Young Offenders' Centre. 

14.       The Commission has continued to consider which rights, supplementary to those in the European Convention, should be contained in a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.  We published a consultation document on this in September 2001 and we plan to spend most of 2002 in deepening our examination of some of the key issues which have so far emerged.  The Commission is working closely with the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland to ensure that there is no unnecessary duplication of effort on anti-discrimination work and to support that Commission's attempts to secure new broad-ranging equality legislation within the Northern Ireland Assembly.  

15.       The Commission has just co-published a new edition of an important practical guide to the UN's human rights machinery.  In October 2001 we gave evidence to the UN's Human Rights Committee on the UK's Fifth Periodic Report on the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.  Later this year we will be appearing before the UN's Committee on the Rights of the Child to comment on the latest UK report on children's rights.  The Commission welcomes the imminent appointment of a Children's Commissioner in Northern Ireland but notes that much more still needs to be done to ensure, for example, that children's rights to education  - and to have their voice heard - are fully recognised.  The Commission has been active in trying to protect the rights of children at the Holy Cross Girls' Primary School and other vulnerable schools in North Belfast.

16.       Also this year the Commission will be commenting on the UK's Periodic Report to the UN's Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Committee and will be attending the Committee's hearing on the report.   

17.       The Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland Human Rights Commissions have established a Joint Committee to draw up a Charter of Rights for the whole island and to consider other human rights issues with an all-island dimension.  The two Commissions will be hosting the Second Round Table for the Council of Europe and European NHRIs in November of this year.  My Commission has also worked closely with the British Council and in line with the policy of the High Commissioner is seeking to help emergent national human rights institutions in other parts of the world.  

18.       The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission believes that much progress has been made in the protection of human rights in Northern Ireland in recent years but that much still remains to be done.  It will be pressing both the regional and the national governments to ensure further progress.           

Professor Brice Dickson,

Chief Commissioner