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DECEMBER
2009
human rights day appeal
10 December 2009 was Human Rights Day. BIRW makes its annual request for donations so as to continue its work in securing, human rights, peace and justice for Northern Ireland. Please join us in celebrating Human Rights Day by sending us a donation. Like everyone else we have been hit by the recession, and we are currently almost £50,000 short of what we need to carry on next year. We are extremely grateful for the donations received so far. A full account of our work during 2009 can be found in our Annual Report on our website.
MANY THANKS TO THE HILDA MULLEN FOUNDATION FOR THEIR ON-GOING SUPPORT
We are tremendously grateful to the Hilda Mullen Foundation for a further grant of $40,000 grant in support of our work. Their on-going support is so gratefully acknowledged. As always, it is not just their money, as helpful as it is, but their confidence in our work that is so encouraging.
A BILL OF RIGHTS FOR NORTHERN IRELAND: A spectacular FAILURE TO ENGAGE
On Human Rights Day 10 December 2008 the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, in accordance with its mandate under the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, and after eight years of consultation with the people of Northern Ireland, delivered its Advice on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Shaun Woodward MP.
Throughout the current year BIRW, together with many other organisations, has lobbied the Northern Ireland Office to respond to the Advice and abide by its commitment to issue a consultation document and declare a period for consultation on the government’s response.
The initial comments of the Secretary of State before the Northern Ireland Select Committee were not encouraging. The broader political landscape on rights and responsibilities and the agendas of both main political parties served to destabilise the debate. The political inertia within the Assembly on the issue was unhelpful. The dissent of two members of the Commission from the Advice did not assist.
But throughout the year the Commission and its civil society allies have strived to present the case that the government – either incumbent or emerging – should engage fully with the Advice presented to it and that the work of the Commission, the Human Rights Consortium and others who contributed to developing the Advice, be recognised as providing a possible road map, not just for Northern Ireland and the promises made under the Agreement, but as a tool for rights entrenchment in the UK more generally.
On 30 November 2009 the Northern Ireland Office finally published its Consultation Paper “A Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland: Next Steps”. The closing date for responding to this document is 1 March 2010. The consultation coincides with the Christmas and New Year period. The last date for a General Election is 3June 2010.
In his Foreword to the Consultation Paper, Shaun Woodward MP, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, said that issues around human rights and equality are part of a necessary framework which is there to protect and benefit the whole community. These fine words rang hollow and stung of political disingenuous when the substantive proposals recommended by the Commission were rendered down to two actual rights in the Consultation Paper: the right to vote and the right to identify one self as British or Irish or both. The opportunity for political engagement has been spectacularly squandered in a 116 page document and is an insult to the Commission, the Forum, the letter and spirit of the Agreement and to the people of Northern Ireland.
The Commission fulfilled its mandate in providing advice on the scope of defining rights supplementary to the European Convention on Human Rights, to reflect the particular circumstances of Northern Ireland, drawing as appropriate on international instruments and experience.
BIRW has three points to make at this point. First, the Northern Ireland Office should note the tone of the reception of its Consultation Paper and decide whether it wants to make a politically credible fresh response to the Advice. Second, the Consultation should remain about a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland and should not be conflated with wider debates or proposals. Third, any response to this Consultation should be couched in terms of the failure of the Consultation Paper to engage with the Advice and must reiterate the mandate of the Agreement as fulfilled by the Commission in providing advice on the defining rights supplementary to the Convention including fully justicable social and economic rights.
BENCHMARKS FOR A STRONG AND ENFORCEABLE BILL OF RIGHTS
In the wake of the publication of the government’s Consultation Paper, BIRW were pleased to offer its support to the Commission at a number of events in London and Belfast.
First, BIRW Research and Casework Manager Christopher Stanley attended a seminar organised by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Global Partners and Associates and London Metropolitan University on “Developing a Bill of Rights for the UK”. BIRW Director Jane Winter had previously given a telephone interview as part of this project’s research programme which resulted in the seminar. The seminar sought to re-figure the Bill of Rights debate in the UK civil and political agenda. There were significant contributions from both the Northern Ireland and Scottish Human Rights Commissions in addition to perspectives from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. Debate focussed on raising awareness amongst the public, engaging positive media attention, defending human rights and the diverse processes of consultation.
Second, BIRW were invited to a round-table discussion on the Advice on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland organised by the Commission at the House of Commons. A number of MPs, Peers, civil servants and human rights activists attended and support for the Commission’s Advice was expressed.
Third, BIRW attended the Committee on the Administration of Justice’s (CAJ’s) Human Rights Day meeting to discuss the government’s consultation on the Commission’s Advice. The meeting was address by the Northern Ireland Chief Commissioner of Human Rights, Professor Monica McWilliams, Professor Colin Harvey, Commission member, and others. There was consensus that the Consultation Paper was a wholly inadequate response to the Commission’s Advice and in no way reflected the groundswell of popular opinion on the matter in Northern Ireland on all sides of the community. BIRW endorses the CAJ benchmarks for a strong and enforceable Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.
A WESTMINSTER RESPONSE ON THE PAST
The House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee published its Report on the Consultative Group on the Past in Northern Ireland this month. The Committee concluded that Northern Ireland has not reached a consensus on how to move on from the conflict. It further concluded that it was unclear whether a Legacy Commission was needed to deal with the past. The Committee found that neither victims, nor members of paramilitary organisations, were willing to sign up to the idea of a truth and reconciliation process and that the proposed mechanisms did not represent a viable course of action. The Committee commented that “In treading carefully, the consultative group appears to reconcile two mutually inconsistent positions” and the group’s proposals in this respect were likely to prove unworkable. The government’s own consultation on the Report closed in October and its response is awaited.
THE COMMISSION FOR VICTIMS AND SURVIVORS
Researcher Caroline Parkes and Christopher Stanley were delighted to welcome Brendan McAllister and Patricia McBride, two of the four Victims and Survivors’ Commissioners, to the BIRW offices this month. Brendan and Patricia were listening to the views of NGOs and civil society groups on the role of the Commission in the proposals on Dealing with the Past. Caroline briefed the Commissioners on our work with the Historical Enquiries Team, our experience with inquests and the coronial system and our work on the Northern Ireland inquiries into the deaths of Billy Wright, Robert Hamill and Rosemary Nelson. The Commissioners invited BIRW to the newly established Victims Forum.
THREAT TO MEMBERS OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
BIRW note the recent threats to a senior member senior of the Northern Ireland judiciary and the governor of HMP Maghaberry. The latter has resigned from his post after only five months, leaving Northern Ireland’s most controversial penal establishment once more in turmoil. The judge and his family have also, unfortunately, been forced to leave their home.
In November the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), which tracks the activities of paramilitary groups, said the dissident threat was at its highest level for almost six years. The IMC said the two main dissident republican groups – the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA – were working more closely together to increase the threat posed to security forces. We very much regret that the political vacuum in the peace process leaves an opportunity for dissident violence to resurge.
LEGAL CHALLENGE TO NO-JURY TRIAL
Leading republican Brian Arthurs has launched a legal action against his forthcoming criminal trial being heard without a jury. He is seeking to quash a decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions to issue a certificate for the trial to take place in front a judge alone. In the High Court leave application to list the judicial review challenge the Lord Chief Justice questioned why the application should not instead be made at the Crown Court before the criminal trial begins in February 2010. Further arguments will be heard next month.
FURTHER FAILINGS IN THE NORTHERN IRELAND PRISON REGIME REPORTED
The recent report of the Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland confirms continued failings in the Northern Ireland prison regime. Following on from the report of Her Majesty’s Inspector of Prisons and the Prisoner Ombudsman, the new report on the treatment of vulnerable prisoners found “inconsistent assessment and monitoring of prisoners at risk.” The report tracked the progress made by the Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) in implementing recommendations made in January 2009 by the Prisoner Ombudsman in her report into the death in custody of Colin Bell. Another prisoner killed himself at HMP Maghaberry in August whilst in the healthcare unit. The report found little change in the daily routine of vulnerable prisoners.
NGOs MAKE CLOSING SUBMISSIONS TO ROBERT HAMILL INQUIRY
BIRW and the Committee on the Administration of Justice made both written and oral closing submissions to the Robert Hamill Inquiry. BIRW director Jane Winter delivered the oral statement on 8th December, by video link. The NGOs invited the Inquiry to consider whether the evidence they had heard should lead them to conclude that the RUC was institutionally sectarian and that collusion had taken place in the police investigation following Robert Hamill’s murder. At the end of her presentation, the Chair permitted other advocates to question Jane Winter, and suggested that she was a witness – a procedure not adopted with any of the other advocates. BIRW and CAJ have written to the Chair protesting about this, and we are awaiting his reply.
In his closing submissions Ashley Underwood QC, counsel to the Inquiry, made the following comment “Finally, I want to thank the BIRW and CAJ, perhaps more controversially. At the outset, they delivered extremely helpful submissions to my team. Their role, as I think has been accepted by the PSNI, is perhaps to say the unpopular and challenging thing.”
LONG KESH 1974 – THE ALLEGED USE OF CR GAS
BIRW Researcher Caroline Parkes met with Professor Julian Perry-Robinson and Caitríona McLeish at the Harvard-Sussex Programme at the University of Sussex to further her research into allegations of the alleged use of CR gas in the 1970s in Northern Ireland at the Long Kesh internment camp.
CONGRATULATIONS TO INQUEST
BIRW offer our congratulations to our colleagues at Inquest, whose co-director, Helen Shaw, is Chair of the BIRW Board, for their achievement in receiving the 2009 Longford Award. Inquest provides a free advice service to bereaved people on contentious deaths. Their commendation reads as follows: “We award the 2009 Longford Prize to INQUEST for its remarkable perseverance, personal commitment and courage in an area too often under-investigated by the public authorities, and especially for its support for the families of those who have taken their own lives while in the care of the state”. We commend them wholeheartedly, knowing as we do from first-hand experience of their wonderful work.
31 DECEMBER 2009
….. 1 January 2010 marks the twentieth anniversary year of the founding of BIRW. Please help us to sustain our work in securing human rights, peace and justice in Northern Ireland. Please respond to our Human Right Day Appeal by sending us a donation, either via our website at www.birw.org or by sending us a cheque (all currencies acceptable) to 13b Hillgate Place, London SW12 9ES. All donations will be gratefully received, put to good use, and acknowledged (unless anonymity is requested). Thankyou so much!
For Peace Justice & Human Rights
