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Annual Report 2001British
Irish RIGHTS WATCH is an independent non-governmental organisation that has
been monitoring the human rights dimension of the conflict, and latterly the
peace process, in Northern Ireland since 1990.
Our services are available free of
charge to anyone whose human rights have been violated because of the
conflict, regardless of religious, political or community affiliations.
We take no position on the eventual
constitutional
A HUMAN RIGHTS DAY
MESSAGE
This has been a very successful
year for British Irish Rights Watch.
At long last we have been able to gauge the impact of over a decade’s
work to promote international human rights standards in relation to the
conflict and the peace process in Northern Ireland.
Several miscarriages of justice
identified by BIRW, some of them many years ago, have been referred back to
the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, resulting in
acquittals. The Police Service of
Northern Ireland has begun to enter into meaningful consultation with us and
other human rights groups about their relationship with lawyers and other
aspects of their work. The United
Nations has taken up our call for transparent and effective inquiries into
deaths involving alleged state collusion, such as those of Patrick Finucane,
Rosemary Nelson, Robert Hamill and Billy Wright, as has the Irish government.
The European Court of Human Rights has issued landmark judgments in some of
the other cases on which we have worked.
The last of the Holding Centres, with their reputation for
ill-treatment of detainees and abuse of their lawyers, has closed.
Much remains to be done.
Sadly, new cases continue to arise, such as the tragic murder of
journalist Martin O’Hagan, and many old cases, such as the bombings in
Dublin and Monaghan in 1974 and the deaths of Seamus Ludlow and Majella
O’Hare in 1976, remain to be resolved.
The implementation of the reforms of policing and the criminal justice
system are in their infancy and will need to be closely monitored.
We have yet to attain public inquiries in several major cases, and the
Bloody Sunday Inquiry has another two years to run.
The cataclysmic events on the USA on September 11th have
meant that there are yet more emergency laws, including internment without
trial, to keep under scrutiny.
We look forward to 2002 with
hope and with a renewed commitment to making a difference to the human rights
landscape in Northern Ireland and beyond, in collaboration with our domestic
and international colleagues.
As always, my thanks to all our
staff, interns, and volunteers, and to all our funders and supporters for
their contribution to our work.
Chairperson,
British
Irish rights watch,
10th
December 2001.
2001
The following extracts from our
monthly reports shows our contemporaneous perspective on the human rights
dimension of events over the past year.
january
IRISH HUMAN
RIGHTS COMMISSION
We have written to the Irish government urging them to
regularise the appointment procedures for their new Human Rights Commission,
after what can only be described as a fiasco.
We were pleased when the government appointed an independent panel of
advisers to recommend the membership of the first set of commissioners,
although we would have preferred to have seen a fully transparent and open
application procedure. However,
we were dismayed when the government then rejected all but one of the
panel’s preferred eight candidates, even going so far as to reject one
candidate whom the government had nominated as a candidate for the Northern
Ireland Human Rights Commission. Our
dismay was shared by the human rights community in Ireland, and we are glad
that after intensive efforts on their part a compromise now appears to have
been reached whereby six of the eight most highly recommended candidates will
sit on the Commission.
february
THOMAS GREEN
Thomas Green, a Protestant, was convicted of the murder
in 1986 of Catholic John O'Neill and sentenced to life imprisonment.
He was held for three days after his arrest in Castlereagh, where he
alleges that he was assaulted, abused and confused until he made a false
confession. On the second day of
his detention he suffered a seizure and had to be rushed to hospital, where he
was found to have suffered a sudden drop in his blood sugar level, a condition
associated with acute anxiety. Last year the Criminal Cases Review Commission referred his
case back to the Court of Appeal. Now
the RUC has announced that two of its officers are to be prosecuted for
perjury, which will delay the hearing of Thomas Green’s new appeal.
DEROGATION LIFTED
The UK has
finally lifted its derogation from Article 5 of the European Convention on
Human Rights, which was necessitated by the fact that the UK did not want to
comply with the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Brogan
v UK concerning prolonged detention under the Prevention of Terrorism
(Temporary Provisions) Act. The
reason for lifting the derogation is the coming into force on 19th
February of the Terrorism Act, which contains a mechanism for judicial
sanction of prolonged detention. It
remains to be seen whether this provision stands up to challenges under the
Human Rights Act.
march
WASHINGTON HIGHLIGHTS
The high point of
my recent visit to Washington was an invitation to the White House St
Patrick’s Day event, where I had the honour of being introduced to the
President by Representative Chris Smith.
The President assured me that he wanted to assist in the peace process
and said, “We’re committed.” Very
many thanks to Chris Smith and to his chief of staff Mary Noonan for all their
help. While in Washington I
testified at a hearing by the House Subcommittee on International Relations
and Human Rights on the review of the criminal justice system in Northern
Ireland. The hearing was
considering the progress made on the human rights commitments contained in the
Good Friday Agreement. I also
attended the American Ireland Fund’s gala dinner, at the kind invitation of
the Dunfey family, whose support made my trip possible.
Warmest thanks to them and to the South African Ambassador, Sheila
Sisulu, for their kind hospitality.
april
third anniversary of peace agreement
Three years on
and, in true Northern Ireland tradition, even the name of the agreement has
become polarised. While most
people still think of it as the Good Friday Agreement, unionists and loyalists
have dubbed that a “republican” name, and insist on calling it the Belfast
Agreement. Sadly, the strong
support for the agreement when it was brokered in1998 seems to be waning on
both sides of the divide, as nationalists see reform of the RUC undermined and
unionists look in vain for any sign of IRA de-commissioning.
It is becoming harder to disguise the fact that the centre of the
agreement was always hollow, in that there was no mutually agreed position,
but rather a package that balanced one set of demands against another, the
hope being that both sides would support the whole package for the sake of
maintaining their own agenda. In
the meantime, the killing goes on, with over 150 victims since the 1994
ceasefires; half of them murdered since the agreement was signed.
There is no substitute for dialogue and accommodation, and it is never
too late to begin. We take no
stand on the final outcome of the process – whether Northern Ireland becomes
part of Ireland or remains in the United Kingdom – but what we have always
argued is that mutual respect for human rights is vital if a just and lasting
peace is ever to be achieved. We
have also pleaded that human rights should not be used as bargaining chips. Unfortunately, that advice has not been heeded.
David Trimble, who as First Minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly
carries responsibility for human rights, has led a campaign by unionists to
discredit the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and human rights
groups. The government has bowed
to political pressure, again from the unionists, to water down the Patten
proposals for reform of the RUC. This
is a short-sighted and potentially disastrous route, which does a great
disservice to the unionist population. Human
rights are not sectarian, they belong to everyone equally. Everyone
in Northern Ireland needs a good police service, which is why we will continue
to work to that end, no matter what labels detractors may seek to attach to
our work. We will also continue
to make our services available to anyone whose human rights have been affected
by the conflict, regardless of religion or political or community
affiliations.
may
landmark judgments by the european court of human rights
On 4th
May the European Court of Human Rights issued its judgments in four cases of
disputed killings.
· Gervase McKerr died in 1982 along with Eugene Toman and Sean Burns when the RUC opened fire on their car. The three IRA suspects were unarmed. Their cases were three of the six investigated by the Stalker/Sampson inquiry. Stalker concluded that there were grounds for charging a number of police officers, and Sampson's report was eventually referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions. However, in January 1988 the Attorney General, Sir Patrick Mayhew, announced that eight RUC officers involved in a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice would not be prosecuted for reasons of national security. British Irish Rights Watch sent a report on Gervase McKerr’s death to the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial Executions in October 1995.
· Pearse Jordan was shot by the RUC on the Falls Road in 1992. Eye witnesses said that the stolen car the IRA man was driving was rammed by the police and that he was cornered and shot in the back. He was unarmed.
· The Kelly case concerns eight IRA men and one passer-by who died in 1987 when the SAS ambushed the IRA members as they were about to attack a police station in Loughgall, Co Armagh. In view of the fact that the SAS had prior knowledge of the IRA’s plans, human rights groups were concerned that the IRA men were not arrested rather than killed, and that little regard seems to have been had for the safety of uninvolved members of the public.
· Patrick Shanagan was killed by the UFF in 1991, not far from his home in Castlederg, Co Tyrone. He had been arrested ten times and his home searched sixteen times in the year prior to his death. The RUC successfully sought judicial review in order to suppress from his inquest evidence suggesting that there may have been collusion in his murder. British Irish Rights Watch sent an independent report concerning his death to the government in 1997.
The Court found
that the investigations into these deaths did not conform with international
human rights standards. Neither
the police investigations nor the inquests met those standards. This is a landmark ruling that affects many other cases, not
only in Northern Ireland, but in the Republic of Ireland and across Europe.
Our congratulations to the Committee on the Administration of Justice
and all the lawyers concerned in bringing these cases.
june
NORTHERN IRELAND
IS ONCE AGAIN ON THE BRINK
The outcome of
the general election and district council elections in Northern Ireland showed
that unionism is split and positions in both the nationalist and unionist
communities have polarised. Sinn
Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party have made significant gains at the
expense of the SDLP and the UUP. For
a full analysis of the results, visit our website at http://www.birw.org.
David Trimble’s threat to resign as First Minister if the IRA does
not de-commission its weapons by the end of this month has turned a problem
into a crisis. Once again the
Assembly may have to be put on hold. And
waiting to rush in to the political vacuum is Drumcree.
Serious rioting in Ardoyne in recent days has shown what may be in
store, and has seen the RUC deploying the new type of supposedly non-lethal
plastic bullets, albeit under scrutiny by the Police Ombudsman.
It is deeply troubling that against this background many people in
Northern Ireland, including lawyers and relatives of people murdered in the
conflict, have recently received warnings from the RUC that their names have
been found on a loyalist computer. The
RUC has advised people to look to their personal safety, but has given them so
little information about the threat they face that this advice is more ominous
than helpful. British Irish Rights
Watch has written to the Secretary of State, John Reid, asking for
better details. We anxiously
await his response.
JOHNNY ADAIR
On 19th June a UTV Insight programme in
which Jane Winter participated was broadcast concerning the revocation of
loyalist Johnny Adair’s prison licence.
British Irish Rights Watch
is concerned that, during the hearing by the Sentence Review Commissioners to
determine whether Johnny Adair should remain in jail after the Secretary of
State revoked his licence, evidence was given against him in his absence and
in the absence of his lawyer. That
evidence partly decided his fate. Such
a procedure is a clear breach of the right to a fair trial, which includes the
right to know what offence you are charged with, the right to answer those
charges and the right to counsel of your own choosing.
No matter what a person is accused of, he or she is entitled to a fair
trial and it is our job as a human rights groups that serves all sides of the
community to speak out when someone’s human rights have been violated.
july
LANDMARK COLLUSION
CASES ON THE POLITICAL AGENDA
Six cases where
allegations of collusion have been made will be considered by an international
judge if proposals contained in the package devised by the British and Irish
governments for moving the peace process on are accepted.
The cases are those of:
·
Robert Hamill, a
young Catholic man who was kicked to death by a loyalist mob in 1997 in the
centre of Portadown despite the presence of armed RUC officers in a police
landrover. The RUC later put out
misleading press statements suggesting that Robert Hamill had been involved in
a pitched battle between opposing factions and that RUC officers had been
injured.
·
dissident loyalist leader, Billy Wright, who was murdered in the
Maze prison in 1997. He was
killed on his way to a visit, by INLA prisoners whom the prison authorities
had housed in the same wing. They
were able to smuggle weapons into the jail, and to cut through a wire fence
completely undetected. A prison
officer was called away from a crucial watch tower just at the time of the
murder, and there is evidence to suggest that the murderers had advance
warning that Billy Wright was due to receive a visit that morning.
·
Belfast lawyer Patrick
Finucane, murdered by the UDA in 1989. There
is strong evidence in his case of collusion with the loyalists by both RUC
officers and British army intelligence.
·
Lurgan lawyer Rosemary
Nelson, blown up in a car bomb by the LVF in 1999.
She was threatened by members of the security forces before she died.
Representations were made to the government concerning her safety by the UN
and by NGOs, but she was offered no protection.
·
Lord Justice and Lady
Gibson, whose car was blown up by the IRA in 1987 as they returned home from a
holiday via the Dun Laoghaire ferry. Although the judge had booked the ferry in his own name, the
timing and location of the explosion, which happened during the handover
between the Garda and RUC escorts on the border, have given rise to
allegations of collusion by a Garda officer.
·
RUC officers Harry Breen
and Bob Buchanan, who were shot by the IRA as they returned to Northern
Ireland from a meeting in the Republic in 1989. Garda collusion is also
suspected in their cases.
British Irish Rights
Watch has worked on the first four of these cases.
Although none of those families wish to become bargaining chips in the
peace process, the proposal shows that their cases are now at the highest
level on the political agenda. They
and we have called for public inquiries in all four cases.
The proposal falls far short of that and fails to comply with
international human rights standards. It
will only be acceptable if it can act as a stepping stone towards, rather than
a substitute for, public inquiries.
september
TERROR IN AMERICA: LESSONS FROM NORTHERN IRELAND
The cataclysmic events in the USA on September 11th and their aftermath will never be forgotten by those who experienced it, even from afar. Our hearts go out to all those who were affected and particularly to those who have lost their loved ones. Those of us who have worked on Northern Ireland are no strangers to terrorism. There are some hard lessons for the rest of the world to be drawn from our experience.
The first, and possibly hardest, lesson, is that terrorists have an agenda, and when they carry out indiscriminate attacks on non-combatants they do so because they know that, however grisly the means, it will deliver their message in a language that will be heard and, ultimately, will be understood. If those of us who reject the use of such indiscriminate violence, however strongly we may feel about a particular cause, do not analyse the terrorists’ message, we will never be able to eradicate terrorism by force alone. At best, as has happened in Northern Ireland, we may be able to contain it.
Secondly, it is vital in dealing with terrorism to refrain from acts of terror ourselves. Thirdly, repression does not suppress terrorism, it fuels it; the creation of martyrs is grist to the mill of the terrorist recruiting sergeants. The suicide bombers who wrecked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon committed the most serious crimes, and if they can be apprehended they should certainly stand trial, but we damage our own democracy if we do not offer them a fair trial on the same terms as any other criminal. We also enhance their standing in the eyes of those who approve of their actions. Fourthly, demonisation of terrorists is unhelpful. Their acts may be despicable, but unless we recognise the humanity of those who carry out such acts, we are in danger of diminishing our own humanity.
The war against terrorism is the war against ignorance,
poverty, racism and injustice, because those are the conditions in which
terrorism gains ground. The
struggle to achieve a world in which our humanity gains the ascendancy over
man’s inhumanity to man is far from over.
It is being put to one of the severest tests it has ever faced. Unless our response is just and proportionate, there is a
severe danger that we will lose the war against terrorism, whatever the
physical outcome, because we will have done the terrorists’ work for them,
by undermining our own democracy and values.
It is never difficult to make a bad situation worse, the trick is to
make the world a better place.
october
ruc conference on human
rights
On 1st
and 2nd October I attended the RUC’s first ever conference on
human rights. The Patten
Commission recommended that human rights should be placed at the heart of
policing, and it was clear from the conference that senior management within
the RUC have heeded that call. The
RUC still has a considerable distance to cover if it is to become compliant
with international human rights standards, and faces a formidable task in
translating the lofty language of human rights into day-to-day good practice
on the ground. Its ability to do
so will be the touchstone of whether it is capable of reform.
NOVEMBER
The government is
rushing legislation through parliament in response to the attacks in the USA.
The provisions include internment without trial, which will require the
government to derogate again from its international human rights commitments,
having only lifted the derogation last February.
Derogation is only permitted when there is an emergency threatening the
life of the nation. It is
debateable whether a derogation in response to terrorist attacks on another
country is lawful. Be that as it
may, the fact is that internment without trial failed to stop terrorism in
Northern Ireland and led to serious human rights abuses, as did other
emergency laws rushed through in response to terrorist outrages.
No-one wants to see what happened in the USA repeated anywhere in the
world, but peace and democracy are never well served by abolishing fundamental
rights.
REPORT
ON ACTIVITIES IN 2001
2001 was, as always, a busy
year. In the past twelve months
our director, Jane Winter, has travelled to Northern Ireland twelve times, to
the Republic of Ireland six times, once to the USA, and twice to the United
Nations in Geneva, where a third visit was made by Fiona Murphy.
Jane has also spoken at a number of events and given many media
interviews. Submissions have been
made to the British, Irish and American governments, the United Nations and
other bodies concerning the many human rights issues that have arisen in the
Northern Ireland context this year.
A summary of our activities is in included in this report.
Below we highlight just a few of the key events and issues.
a
bill of rights for northern ireland
The Northern Ireland peace agreement decreed a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland has never known full respect for human rights, and the whole of its society has suffered as a result. Respect for the fundamental rights of others and an understanding of the interaction of rights between individuals and communities are necessary ingredients for both democracy and civil society. Those elements have been and are still lacking in Northern Ireland. Peace can not replace conflict, and certainly can not be expected to take root and flourish, where human rights are not honoured.
Against this background, the Bill of Rights is clearly of enormous significance. The task before the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission is immense. They must draw up an instrument that will protect the rights of those who demand the right to march and celebrate Protestant history and traditions, as well as the rights of residents not to be subjected to harassment and abuse by those very marchers.
Unionist politicians in Northern Ireland have been hostile to the Human Rights Commission and to the Bill of Rights. They have created a situation in which the government has fought shy of guaranteeing that there will in fact be a Bill of Rights at the end of the day. There is a danger, therefore, that after all their work the Commission will find that its draft Bill gathers dust on the shelf, or that whatever they recommend is watered down.
In September the Commission published a draft Bill and put it out to consultation. It contains many good things, including a very full section on children’s rights. However, it contains one very serious flaw. Bills of Rights need not only to protect individuals from governments, but to protect minorities from majorities. This is perhaps particularly so in a democracy, where the majority have the final say in many important matters affecting the lives of the minority. It is therefore vital that a Bill of Rights draws a clear distinction between rights that apply to everyone in a society and additional rights that apply to minorities in order to protect, in essence, their identity and their right not to conform to majority norms. Yet the draft Bill does not do this. Instead, it substitutes the notion of “members of communities” for that of minorities, thus at a stroke creating minority rights for the majority.
The Protestant/unionist/loyalist grouping is in the majority in Northern Ireland but is in a minority in the island of Ireland as a whole - and, indeed, within the United Kingdom - whereas the Catholic/nationalist/republican grouping is in the minority in Northern Ireland but can count itself part of the majority of Ireland. Whatever the eventual outcome of the peace process, it will be necessary to guarantee the rights of whichever grouping finds itself in the - presumably perpetual – minority, if there is to be lasting peace. It is vital for the sake of everyone in Northern Ireland that the Bill of Rights gets this right.
intimidation of defence lawyers
For the majority of defence lawyers in Northern Ireland,
the situation has improved thanks to the introduction of a number of measures,
many of them recommended by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the
Independence of Judges and Lawyers in his 1998 report on his mission to the
United Kingdom. These measures
include the closure of the holding centres, the introduction of video- and
audio-recording of police interviews, and the presence of solicitors during
those interviews. For a small
group of lawyers, though, the situation has worsened, largely, in our opinion,
because the government failed to act promptly enough.
The repercussions of the murder in March 1999 of the Lurgan solicitor
Rosemary Nelson have had serious consequences for that small group of lawyers
who remain at risk. We are
continuing to monitor the situation of those lawyers and to do what we can to
ensure their safety.
collusion
In February 1999 we presented a
confidential report to the British and irish governments and the United
Nations about the deaths of Patrick Finucane, Terence McDaid and Gerard Slane.
Our report set out detailed allegations about the activities of the
army intelligence Force Research Unit. Since
then, further evidence has come to light suggesting that the FRU is implicated
in a number of murders and attempted murders.
New evidence has also come to light concerning the failure of the
RUC’s Special Branch to prevent the murder of Patrick Finucane or bring the
perpetrators to book. The British
government responded to our report by initiating a third police investigation
by Sir John Stevens of the Metropolitan Police.
Three years on, a lot of money has been spent, but there is little to
show for the investigation. The
collapse of the trial of William Stobie in November this year was entirely
predictable. Stobie has confessed to supplying the weapons used in the
Finucane murder. However, he
claims that he was a Special Branch informer at the time and told his handlers
enough to prevent the murder, but they failed to act.
At the time of writing, a joint proposal by the British and Irish governments to bring in an international judge is under discussion. S/he would look at the cases of Patrick Finucane, Rosemary Nelson, Robert Hamill, Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan, Lord Justice and Lady Gibson, and Billy Wright. If the judge recommends a public inquiry in any of these cases, four of which BIRW has worked on for several years, the relevant government has agreed to act on that recommendation. The proposal falls far short of the international human rights standards that apply in such cases, and it remains to be seen whether the families concerned will participate in such an exercise.
Following
lobbying by BIRW and other human rights groups, in November the United Nations
Human Rights Committee called for “a full, transparent and credible
accounting of the circumstances surrounding violations of the right to
life”. They expressed concern
about the murders of human rights defenders such as Patrick Finucane and
Rosemary Nelson, and other cases where there have been persistent allegations
of involvement and collusion by members of the security forces, including the
Force Research Unit. They said
that those responsible should be prosecuted.
The Committee recommended action “as a matter of particular
urgency”.
The Committee’s
recommendations followed four landmark rulings by the European Court of Human
Rights, described elsewhere in this Annual Report,
which concerned contentious killings involving the security forces or
collusion.
freedom of expression
Following the brutal murder of Northern Ireland journalist Martin
O’Hagan in September, BIRW sent a report to the UN Special Rapporteur on
Freedom of Expression, Dr Abid Hussain. We
have asked him to ascertain the truth about allegations made by fellow
journalists that the police investigation into his death is being hampered
because one of the suspects is an informer.
In April we sent
the Special Rapporteur a report on the Ministry of Defence’s injunction
banning the broadcasting of a programme by Ulster Television’s Insight
team. Following Orders was
about infiltration by the Force Research Unit of former soldiers into the IRA.
The programme would have alleged that members of the security forces
and the public died in IRA attacks that were allowed to go ahead in order to
protect these agents’ cover, and that these agents were actively involved in
some of those attacks. It also
included an interview with Dato’ Param Cumaraswamy, who called for a public
inquiry into all the deaths allegedly caused by FRU.
We note that the government has not denied any of the allegations made
about the activities of the FRU, which seem to have been responsible for an
ever-increasing death toll, including, it would now appear, soldiers and RUC
officers. Both unionist
and nationalist politicians in Northern Ireland have called for a public
inquiry into the FRU. The
government’s only response has been to shoot the messenger.
policing
The Police Service of Northern Ireland has taken its first steps towards implementing the recommendation of the Patten Commission on policing reform that it should put human rights at the heart of policing. It has drawn up a Force Order on its relationship with defence lawyers, and a Code of Ethics, both of which draw on international human rights standards. BIRW is encouraged that both documents were sent to human rights groups for comments, and that the PSNI has taken some of our comments on board. The Police Service still has a considerable distance to cover if it is to become compliant with international human rights standards, and faces a formidable task in translating the lofty language of human rights into day-to-day good practice on the ground. Its ability to do so will be the touchstone of whether it is capable of reform.
criminal justice review
The Bill to give effect to the
Criminal Justice Review ordained by the Good Friday Agreement was finally
published late this year, together with an implementation plan.
We were gravely disappointed that the government, while appearing to
accept the Review team’s recommendations, has not embraced the spirit of the
reforms they envisaged in the prosecution system or the appointment of judges.
It is an open secret that the fiercest critics of the team’s
proposals were the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Lord Chief Justice,
and it would appear that they have succeeded in watering down reforms in these
crucial areas. We are also
concerned that no-one has been appointed to oversee the implementation of the
reforms.
miscarriages of justice
Six cases identified by BIRW as
miscarriages of justice have been referred back to the Court of Appeal by the
Criminal Cases Review Commission. Billy
Gorman was acquitted and is seeking compensation. Gerard Magee was also acquitted after the European Court of
Human Rights ruled that he had not received a fair trial. Thomas Green’s case was delayed while RUC officers involved
in his case were tried for perjury. The
officers were acquitted, which we hope will not affect Thomas Green’s
chances of acquittal. Christy
Walsh’s case was heard in the summer but no judgment has been delivered yet.
Neil Latimer’s and Anthony Doherty’s cases are awaiting hearings.
While it is good to see these cases being referred back for new
hearings, we are concerned about the length if time it takes the CCRC to
determine cases. We are also
concerned that in some of these cases the CCRC has been minded not to refer
the cases back, only changing their mind at the last moment, when it has been
quite obvious that a miscarriage of justice has occurred.
bloody sunday
Our observer Catherine
McKenna’s weekly reports on the second public inquiry into the events that
have come to be known as Bloody Sunday, when unarmed civilians were killed and
injured by the British army in Derry in 1972, are posted on our website.
The High Court in London has recently ruled that the Bloody Sunday
Inquiry must reconsider its decision that soldiers should give evidence in
Derry.
grateful thanks
We should like to take this
opportunity to thank our interns this year:
Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, Katie Wiik,
Lisa Yu, John Gayer, Leanne Pang, Ayesha Mohsin, Jeeyon Park, Rob Higgins; our
administrative assistant Elizabeth Folarin; and our observer at the Bloody
Sunday Inquiry, Catherine McKenna.
SUPPORT for our work
British
Irish rights watch is
pleased to acknowledge with gratitude financial support during 2001 from the
Atlantic Philanthropies, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust; the John Merck
Fund; the Ruben and Elisabeth Rausing Trust; the Hilda Mullen Foundation; the
Catherine Scorer Memorial Trust; Garden Court Chambers; under the auspices of
the American Ireland Fund: the Dunfey Family Fund; and many individuals in
Britain, Ireland and America.
SUMMARY
OF MAIN ACTIVITIES IN 2001
seminars
· Northern Ireland: the Human Rights Dimension, London
· A Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland, London
· Policing in Transition, London
· Lethal force and inquests, London
· Emergency laws, London
·
Collusion, London
trials observed
· Judicial review by David Wright of the Coroner for Greater Belfast’s decision not to allow him to see statements made by prison officers who were not called as witnesses at the inquest on Billy Wright, Belfast
· Referral back to the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission of the case of Gerard Magee, Belfast
· Preliminary hearing concerning potential contempt of court by the media in trial of Colm Murphy, Dublin
· Appeal against injunction on publication by the Sunday Times of information about British military intelligence, London
· Application for judicial review by Jean McBride for judicial review of Army Board’s decision to reinstate the soldiers who murdered her son Peter, London
· Referral back to the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission of the case of Christy Walsh, Belfast
· Application for judicial review by soldiers concerning venue for their testimony before the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, London
· Application for declaration of abuse of process by William Stobie, Belfast
· Referral back to the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission of the case of Anthony O’Doherty, Belfast
events observed
publications
· Analysis of the results of the general election and district council elections in Northern Ireland, British Irish rights watch, June 2001
· Human Wrongs, Human Rights: A Guide to the Human Rights Machinery of the United Nations, British Irish rights watch/Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, December 2001, third edition
submissions
united nations
·
Submission to the United Nations'
Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial, Summary and Arbitrary Executions
concerning the death of Diarmuid O’Neill
·
Submission to the Special Rapporteur
on Freedom of Expression and Opinion concerning the banning of UTV’s Insight
programme on the infiltration of former soldiers into the IRA
·
Submission
to the United Nations Human Rights Committee on the UK’s observance of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
·
Submission to the United Nations'
Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers concerning
attempted intimidation of defence lawyers in Northern Ireland
·
Submission to the Special Rapporteur
on Freedom of Expression and Opinion concerning the murder of journalist
Martin O’Hagan
other bodies
·
Response to
consultation by the Northern Ireland Office on Codes of Practice issued under
the Terrorism Act 2000
·
Response to
consultation by the Northern Ireland Office on the draft Life Sentences
(Northern Ireland ) Order 2001 and Life Sentence Commissioners Rules
·
Response to
consultation by the Northern Ireland Office on its equality scheme
·
Response to
consultation by the Joint Committee on Human Rights on devising its work plan
·
Submission
to the Joint Committee on Human Rights concerning a UK-wide human rights
commission
·
Response to
consultation by the Royal Ulster Constabulary on its draft Force Order on its
relationship with defence lawyers
·
Response to
consultation by the Royal Ulster Constabulary on its draft Code of Ethics
·
Submission to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on
Justice on the Bill to incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights
into Irish law
·
Response to
consultation by the Northern Ireland Human Rights commission on its draft Bill
of Rights
expert testimony/intervention
Judicial review of the Army Board concerning
their re-instatement of James Fisher and Mark Wright, convicted of the murder
of Peter McBride
about British Irish rights
watch
British Irish rights
watch is an independent non-governmental organisation (NGO) that
monitors the human rights dimension of the conflict in Northern Ireland.
It is registered as a not-for-profit company and is a registered
charity.
The organisation was formally
established in 1992, although those involved in its work have been so since
1990. Its objects are:
1.
the promotion by means of education and research of the proper
observance and maintenance of human rights in Britain and Ireland and
elsewhere in the world with particular reference to the conflict in Northern
Ireland;
2.
the promotion and dissemination of knowledge, information and
understanding of such human rights by writing, publishing and distributing
articles, reports, books and other documents and assisting in the same, by
arranging and providing lectures and seminars, and by all other means of
providing and exchanging information.
3.
to procure the abolition of torture, extra-judicial executions, and
arbitrary arrest, detention and exile.
history
British Irish rights
watch arose out of the concern of a small group of people from England,
Ireland and America, all of them based in London, about the human rights
violations stemming from the conflict in Northern Ireland.
Their work began informally in 1990, and consisted originally of
organising seminars for lawyers, firstly in London and then in Belfast and
Dublin. Gradually, lawyers and
then campaign groups and individuals whose human rights had been affected
began to regard them as a resource. In
1992 they played a key role in organising the Northern Ireland Human Rights
Assembly in London, which attracted 254 written submissions alleging human
rights violations arising from the conflict and over 250 participants.
A panel of seven international human rights experts heard evidence over
three days and produced a substantial report, Broken Covenants, that severely criticised the United Kingdom
government for its failure to protect human rights. This Assembly generated even more demand for the group’s
services, and in May 1992 British Irish rights
watch was formally established as a not-for-profit company.
In 1995 the organisation achieved charitable status.
Until August 1994 its primary
role was to monitor alleged human rights violations arising from the conflict
in Northern Ireland. Since the
ceasefires, it has enhanced its activities to include ensuring that proper
respect for human rights is established in Northern Ireland in the wake of the
conflict, with particular emphasis currently on the role of human rights in
the emerging peace process.
British Irish rights
watch’s services are available free of charge to everyone, regardless
of their religious or political affiliations or opinions, and we are proud
that our services are requested by individuals and groups on all sides of the
community. We take no position on the eventual constitutional outcome of
the peace process and we are entirely independent of any other organisation,
although we work very closely with other domestic and international NGOs who
share our concerns.
Until February 1995 all our work was carried out on a voluntary
basis by unpaid volunteers. At
that point, we had raised enough funding to enable us to open an office and
employ a full-time director for one year.
With the peace process at such a crucial moment we did not hesitate,
but deployed our existing funding in full and resolved to raise enough further
financial support to enable us to see our task through to its conclusion.
key
activities
In fulfilment of its charitable
objects, British Irish rights watch:
researches alleged human rights violations arising out of the conflict
sends independent observers to trials, inquests and inquiries
provides consultancy services for lawyers
makes representations to international human rights bodies and
organisations such as the United Nations
organises seminars for lawyers and others
makes third party interventions in human rights cases and provides
expert testimony
publishes articles and reports
organises conferences.
personnel
British Irish rights
watch is managed by a Management Committee made up of four women, all
of whom give their time and expertise free of charge:
Angela Hickey, from London, who is the Corporate Complaints Officer for
the London Borough of Brent.
Fiona Murphy, from Belfast, who is a solicitor.
Sarah Cooke, from London, who is the Director of the British
Institute for Human Rights.
and Marion Fitzpatrick, from Yorkshire, who was until recently
the Director of the London Advice Services Alliance and now an administrator.
The Director is Jane Winter,
from London, who is a founder member of British Irish rights watch, and who has eleven years’ experience of
working on the human rights dimension of the conflict in Northern Ireland.
She has previously worked as a researcher and as an adviser and
advocate in the Citizens Advice Bureau service and the law centre movement.
Our full-time administrative assistant is Elizabeth Folarin.
Our full-time observer at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry is Catherine
McKenna.
British Irish rights
watch has volunteers based in London, Belfast and Dublin who make a
valuable contribution to its work. It
has also benefited from the input of interns from many parts of the world.
sponsors
British
Irish rights watch is fortunate
to be sponsored by three leading human rights lawyers:
Professor Kader Asmal MP, Minister of Education in the South African
government, is also a professor of human rights law and the former Chair of
the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.
Helena Kennedy QC is a campaigner for women’s rights and a
distinguished lawyer who has been involved in many leading civil liberties
cases. Baroness Kennedy is an
active member of the House of Lords.
Michael Mansfield QC is a highly successful barrister who has been
involved in remedying many of the notorious Irish miscarriages of justice,
including the cases of the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four. He is
currently appearing in the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.
funding
British Irish
rights watch gratefully acknowledges the financial support of:
the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust;
the John Merck Fund;
the Hilda Mullen Foundation;
the Polden-Puckham Charitable Foundation;
the Catherine Scorer Trust Fund;
the Patrick Finucane Memorial Trust;
Garden Court Chambers;
Took’s Court Chambers;
the Ruben and Elisabeth Rausing Trust;
the trade union UNISON;
under the auspices of the American Ireland Fund: Bob, Jack and
Jerry
Dunfey, Loretta Brennan Glucksman, Dennis Smith, Bill McNally and John T
Sharkey; and
many individual lawyers in Britain, Ireland and America.
donations are always welcome, acknowledged, and put to good use
For Peace Justice & Human Rights
