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NOVEMBER
2008
BIRW UPDATE
NOVEMBER 2008
NOW IS THE TIME TO SUPPORT BIRW AND DOUBLE YOUR DONATION FOR FREE
British Irish RIGHTS WATCH (BIRW) is facing a shortfall of £160,000 in our funding in 2009. We are working hard to bridge that gap, but if you are able to make a donation to us via theBigGive website on or soon after 1st December 2008, we will receive double your donation, at no extra cost to you. We know times are hard, but doesn’t that sound like an offer you can’t refuse? Making a donation is easy and secure. All you need to do is:
visit www.thebiggive.org on or soon after 1st December 2008 (this is a time-limited offer). Choose Find a charity. Type in British Irish as keywords, and our page will come up, Chose More info, then choose Donate online. Finally, fill in your details and click onto Double your donation, and we will receive twice as much as you decide to give. We promise to use your money well.
(If you have donated money towards our conference on Patrick Finucane next year, don’t worry, that money is safe and will not go to BIRW, we are simply acting as a banker for the Finucane family.)
historical enquiries team narrowly averts shut down
We were alarmed to hear during the month that the police Historical Enquiries Team has had to issue statutory redundancy warning to almost all its staff because of a shortfall in its funding, after the Northern Ireland Office withheld a previously-agreed grant of some £2million. We immediately wrote to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, pointing out that, if the work of the HET were to grind to a halt it would be very unlikely that the proposals of the Consultative Group on the Past, due out early next year, would command public confidence, and public confidence in policing would also be severely dented. We would like to think that our letter helped to bring about the change of heart which saved the HET’s bacon.
irish human rights commission and equality authority face cuts
The budget of the Irish Human Rights Commission is proposed to be cut by 24% and that that of the Equality Authority by 43%. Cuts in other bodies with comparable mandates range between 2% and 9%. It is hard to understand why the Human Rights Commission and the Equality Authority are being singled out for such draconian cuts, especially during a time of recession, when vulnerable people and groups need more help than ever in order to vindicate their rights. We have written to the Irish government pointing out that the failure to support these two agencies not only send a message to the Irish people that their rights are not important, but they run the risk of breaching the Irish commitment in the Good Friday Agreement to provide at least as much human rights protection as exists in Northern Ireland.
is human rights really at the heart of policing?
We have responded in depth to the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s long-awaited equality impact assessment on the use of tasers (electric stun guns). In our view, the PSNI’s ignoring of advice from both the UN Committee Against Torture and the Committee on the Rights of the Child against using tasers calls into question the claim that human rights lie at the heart of policing in Northern Ireland. Only this weekend, a would-be robber was stopped with a 50,000 volt electric shock. As we suspected, if you give the police new weapons they will use them. We find it hard to believe that the police would have shot this man, who allegedly was armed with a knife, with a conventional gun. It is only a matter of time before a taser is used on someone with a heart condition or a pregnant woman – both conditions which may not be obvious to the officer concerned – with potentially lethal results.
david wright loses faith in the billy wright inquiry
On 20th November David Wright, Billy Wright’s father, held a press conference at which he said that he had no confidence in Angus Stewart QC, who took over as Counsel to the Inquiry after the as-yet-unexplained departure of his predecessor. The Committee on the Administration of Justice and BIRW put out a joint press release saying that we too had concerns about the Inquiry. It has seemed to us that, firstly, there has been an unprecedented level of obstruction on the part of those who could assist the Inquiry and, secondly, an apparent failure on the part of the Inquiry to pursue all avenues open to it to uncover the truth. Those who attempt to pervert the course of justice only perpetuate injustice. If documentary evidence is no longer available to the Inquiry, whether through deliberate deceit or merely because of the passage of time, then it is incumbent on the Inquiry to ensure that those people who have direct knowledge of relevant events are called to account. We expect and hope that the Inquiry will rigorously investigate every available line of enquiry in order to establish the full truth about the murder of Billy Wright.
dANIEL McGURK
BIRW met with the Retrospective Murder Review Unit this month in connection with the murder of Daniel McGurk. He was shot by dissident republicans on 17th August 2003; as yet, no-one has been brought to book for his murder.
PAUL McILWAINE FINDS VICTIMS HAVE FEW RIGHTS
BIRW found itself having to make representations to the PSNI, the DPP and the Lord Chief Justice on behalf of Paul McIlwaine, whose son David was murdered in 2001, along with Andrew Robb. A defendant has gone on trial for the murders this month, but the McIlwaine family found, as is all too often the case when it comes to victims in criminal trials, that no-one had thought about their needs. Paul McIlwaine had to fight for the right to take notes in court and to be allowed to drink water during the distressing hearings. No steps were taken to prepare him and his family (or, so far as we know Andrew Robb’s family) for the gruesome evidence in the case, and the family was not even told about the facilities in the court for victims. To make maters worse, Paul McIlwaine heard in the space of a single week that he was to appear as a witness for the defence and for the prosecution, which was the first he had heard of it – in fact, he is to be called as neither. It really is time that all the agencies responsible for the criminal justice system started to take proper care of the victims of crime. These kind of problems, which stem from institutional neglect, cause immeasurable, unnecessary, and avoidable stress at the worst of all possible times.
KEEPING UP THE DIALOGUE ON EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATIONS
BIRW have responded to the Joint Committee on Human Rights’ recent report, Monitoring the Government’s Response to Human Rights Judgments: Annual Report 2008. We made a short submission to the Committee’s inquiry focussing on the failure of the government to provide effective investigations in key Northern Irish cases such as Finucane.
putting the past in perspective
The record of the proceedings of this seminar, held in conjunction with the Human Rights Centre at Queen’s University Belfast last May, is now available on our website. Our distinguished panel of speakers – Dr Drandon Hamber, Professor Monica McWilliams, Trevor Ringland and Patrick Corrigan – have edited and augmented their contributions to provide a must-read contribution to the debate on dealing with the past from a variety of perspectives.
house of lords’ criticism of human rights commission unjustified
Like many others, we were taken aback by the harsh criticism meted out to the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission by Lord Hoffman in his judgment regarding the Holy Cross School case this month, who suggested that their third party intervention added nothing to the case. We beg to differ. The Commission helped to clarify an important point of law, and the House of Lords in fact agreed with the Commission that the Court of Appeal had paid insufficient heed to the Human Rights Act in considering the policing of the Holy Cross incident. The Commission had to fight for the right to make third party interventions, and takes that role very seriously indeed.
congratulations to aideen
We are delighted to report that the Beacon Awards have sent a certificate of high commendation for her leadership skills to Aideen Gilmore of CAJ, whom we had nominated for a prize. The awards committee were very impressed by Aideen’s work on the Bill of Rights.
WELCOME TO REBECCA
BIRW welcomes Rebecca Brattsker, our new volunteer. She will be working on a wide variety of projects including a synopsis of the inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes.
31st november 2008
For Peace Justice & Human Rights
