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JULY2006
“UNSUNG HERO”
July saw the publication by John Blake Publishing of “Unsung Hero” by Kevin Fulton with Jim Nally and Ian Gallagher. It gives the inside story of an agent recruited by the army intelligence Force Research Unit who calls himself by the pseudonym Kevin Fulton. Not long after publication he, his collaborators and his publishers were all either raided or served with production orders concerning the book. Looks like this is one of those books they do not want you to read!
THE DEFINITION OF TERRORISM
On 7th July I attended a seminar organised by Lord Carlile QC as part of his consultation exercise on the definition of terrorism. Professor Conor Gearty (London School of Economics & Matrix Law Chambers), Shami Chakrabarti (Director of Liberty), Professor Phillipe Sands (University College London), and Khalid Sofi (Chair of the Legal Affairs Committee of the Muslim Council of Britain) all issued impassioned warnings about the danger of fettering freedom of expression and criminalising whole communities. BIRW is something of a lone voice at these sorts of events in arguing that every crime committed in the name of a “terrorist cause” can be dealt with adequately by the ordinary criminal law, and that oppressive laws only generate recruits and create martyrs. We also pointed out that it is not just particular communities who suffer from draconian anti-terrorrsm measures: everyone in society suffers a diminution of their democratic rights, thus achieving the terrorists’ aims for them. The previous evening, Caroline attended a lecture entitled ‘The Age of Fallibility: consequences of the war on terror’ held at the London School of Economics. The panel consisted of LSE faculty members, Shami Chakribarti, and George Soros, whose new book ‘The Age of Fallibility’ provided the central discussion topic.
the uk’s compliAnce with the convention against torture
BIRW has submitted a response to the parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights’ report on the UK’s compliance with the United Nations’ Convention Against Torture. While we were broadly encouraged by the Committee’s conclusions, we remain concerned at the continuing failure of the UK to fully embrace all aspects of the Convention. Of particular concern is the proposed abolition of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspectorate of Prisons, which could seriously undermine the independent monitoring of prisons.
USE OF FORCE IN NORTHERN IRELAND COMES UNDER SCRUTINY
On 8th July 2006 Caroline Parkes attended an NGO roundtable in Belfast, convened by the Policing Board’s Human Rights Advisors to discuss various aspects of the use of force by the Police Service of Northern Ireland, including plastic bullets and CS gas. This was an opportunity to understand the role a of the Human Rights Advisors, as well as hear other NGOs’ opinions on these issues. We hope this is the start of a continued process of dialogue between NGOs and the Human Rights Advisors.
ballymurphy
The situation in Ballymurphy continues to give cause for concern. This month we sent information to the Independent Monitoring Commission covering both sides of the spectrum, and also wrote to the Secretary of State emphasising that, unless the PSNI can deliver effective and impartial policing in a nationalist area like Ballymurphy, the Patten reforms of policing will have been in vain.
incentives for prisoners
BIRW has submitted comments to the Northern Ireland Prison Service on its Progressive Regimes and Earned Privileges Scheme, which is essentially a system of incentives for orderly behaviour. By and large we support this scheme, particularly because of its enhanced scope for rehabilitation rather than punishment. However, we have some concerns that it might be open to discrimination or abuse by individual prison officers, and we think more attention needs to be paid to the role of certain prison officers in the prison drugs trade.
BEHIND THE SCENES
It may look from the above that BIRW have had our feet on the desk doing nothing all month, but nothing could be further from the truth. Days of research have been carried out into on-going cases, and many letters have been written and representations made on behalf of clients whose safety would be at risk if we did not respect their need for confidentiality. There was a time when July was a quite month around here, but those days are long gone!
WELCOME TO MATT, FAREWELL TO ERIN
This month we welcomed Matthew Barrett from Emory Law School in Atlanta who is helping us with our database of deaths arising from the conflict. We also said goodbye and good luck to Erin Dougherty, who started this project off for us.
Jane Winter,
Director,
31st July 2006.
For Peace Justice & Human Rights
