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JANUARY 2008
BIRW UPDATE
JANUARY 2008
how many commissioners does it take to change a light bulb?
This month’s announcement that not one but four people have been appointed to act as Victims’ Commissioners does not bode well for the Northern Ireland Assembly’s capacity for healing the wounds left by the conflict. Surely if there is one matter that everyone can agree about it is that all the victims of the conflict need practical help and support. Their needs are the same, whichever community or tradition they come from. The idea that four people, however well-qualified each of them may be individually, are required to meet victims’ needs only perpetuates the idea that there are Protestant/unionist/loyalist victims and Catholic/nationalist/republican victims who somehow have different requirements. It is a small step from there to falling back into the old, unhelpful stereotypes of hierarchies of victims: the deserving and the undeserving; and the innocent and the guilty.
birw seeks an admin volunteer and board members
We are looking for a volunteer to help our Administrator, Elizabeth Folarin, and for new members, as well as a Chair, for our Board of Management. Details are available on our website. If you would like to get involved with our work, please do take a look.
psni deploy tasers
Despite the concerns voices in many quarters, the Police Service of Northern Ireland has gone ahead and deployed the electric stun guns known as tasers. Tasers have been implicated in hundreds of deaths worldwide, and are particularly dangerous if fired upon pregnant women, children, or people with heart conditions. The fact that the PSNI has decided to arm its officers with these potentially lethal weapons before knowing the results of an equality impact assessment (in other words, whether tasers have a disproportionate impact on disadvantaged groups) is particularly troubling. Tasers are not an alternative to firing live ammunition, they are another weapon in the PSNI’s already formidable arsenal. BIRW is opposed to the use of tasers because, unlike other weapons used by the police, it is not possible to moderate their effect; tasers deliver a massive, and very painful, electric shock, over the strength of which a police officer has absolutely no control.
birw comments on prisons
BIRW submitted a response to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee’s recent report on their inquiry into the state of prisons in Northern Ireland. Like many reports on this topic, positive recommendations were made with regard to expanding the prison estate and addressing the needs of vulnerable women prisoners. However, our concerns focussed on the need for a properly costed and timetabled plan covering the whole of the prison system – the estate, the prisoners and the prison staff – as well as improvements to the criminal justice and mental health systems in order to improve prisons in Northern Ireland.
ludlow family meet the taoiseach
On 22nd January our Director Jane Winter travelled to Dublin to join the family of Seamus Ludlow for their first-ever meeting with the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern TD. Seamus Ludlow was murdered near Dundalk in 1976 by loyalists from north of the border who included serving soldiers. The Taoiseach was asked to consider establishing a specific, time-limited inquiry into the failure to bring the perpetrators to book. His reply is awaited.
policing and equality
We also made a submission to the Policing Board of Northern Ireland on their five year Equality Review. While the Policing Board has made a good commitment to equality, we still believe that there is work to be done. In particular, we highlighted the need to ensure that training on equality legislation and related issues is regular, thorough and re-enforced.
SEMINAR ON ACCOUNTABILITY IN TRANSITION
BIRW is organising a seminar jointly with the School Of Law, Queen’s University Belfast, on 16 February 2008 from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm in Seminar Room 1, Institute Of Governance, 63 University Road, Belfast, on the role of accountability mechanisms in the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland. Speakers include
Professor Colin Harvey, Dame Nuala O’Loan, Professor Kieran McEvoy, Kit Chivers, Chief Inspector of the Criminal Justice Inspectorate, Dave Cox, head of the Historical Enquiries Team, and Jane Winter of BIRW. The seminar will be chaired by Keir Starmer QC, Human Rights Adviser to the Northern Ireland Policing Board. Places cost £30 (students £10). To book your place, e-mail us on birw@birw.org
PARADES COMMISSON RULED OUT OF ORDER
Judgment has been given in the case of Re Duffy, in the House of Lords. BIRW observed the case in November. The case brought by Mr Duffy challenged the appointment by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on 30 November 2005 of two new members of the Parades Commission for Northern Ireland. Mr Duffy, a member of the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition, based his challenge on the suitability of Mr David Burrows and Mr Donald Mackay (who resigned from the Commission prior to the verdict at first instance) as members of the Commission. His complaint was firstly that the Secretary of State had actively encouraged members of the Orange Orders to apply, and had failed to balance this by encouraging applications from groups such as the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition; and secondly that the Secretary of State had failed to consider the potential for a conflict of interest to arise in these appointments. Both Mr Burrows and Mr Mackay remained active members of their Orange Lodges subsequent to appointment. The judge’s decision in first instance was reinstated. The decision to appoint the two men was quashed.
policing the past
BIRW have made submission to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee’s inquiry into the effect on policing of “historic inquiries” and the provisions of the Inquiries Act 2005 and other legislation which might require the police to divulge covert sources. We have argued that, with so many unsolved murders arising out of the conflict, money spent on projects such as the PSNI’s Historical Enquiries Team is money well spent in terms of helping to those who have lost loved ones to find closure. In relation to covert sources, we have said that in our view, the protections already in place are adequate. There is nothing in the Inquiries Act 2005 or any other legislation that places covert sources at any greater risk than they have always faced. Whether their identities have to be revealed will always be a matter for the courts decide, in their proper consideration of the balance that must be struck between the right to life of individuals, the public interest and the interests of national security.
welcome to james
We welcome James Spybey, who is interning for BIRW for six months prior to beginning the Bar Vocational Course. He will be working on a wide variety of projects.
birw human rights day appeal
So far we have received over £1,000 in response to our annual Human Rights Day Appeal. Many thanks to all those who have sent donations in support of our work. If you have been meaning to respond but have not got round to it yet, it is never too late to do so!
31st January 2008
For Peace Justice & Human Rights
