Director's Report February 2000

February 2000

The suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly has been a bitter blow to the Northern Ireland peace process. With the marching season soon to be upon us, and serious acts of violence by dissidents on all sides in recent weeks, the prospect looks very grim. That the taste of democracy afforded by the Assembly should have been so brief is a tragedy for the majority of people in Northern Ireland, who expressed their support for the Good Friday Agreement so strongly through the ballot box. It is because their support was so strong that calls for the government to also dismantle the human rights aspects of the Agreement must not be accepted. If civil society is not to be able to develop through the channel of the Assembly, it all the more vital that it can do so through the implementation of the Patten reforms of policing, the work of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, strengthening of the equality agenda, and the report of the Criminal Justice Review, which is now overdue.

It is now over a year since we delivered a confidential report to the British and Irish governments calling for an independent judicial inquiry into the murder of Patrick Finucane and the many others who may also have been victims of systematic collusion on the part of British army intelligence. During that time, disturbing further evidence has emerged that raises the question of RUC involvement in his murder and also poses questions about the role of the Director of Public Prosecutions. We have pointed out to the British government that they need look no further than their own files in order to establish whether the very serious allegations we have made have any truth in them. Their silence - and we note that they have not denied our allegations - only deepens public concern about the issues we have raised. On 24th February we presented the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, with a further report, called Justice Delayed, which is available on our website. He responded by publicly backing the Finucane family's call for an inquiry. We have, of course, also sent a copy of the report to the British government. We hope that the further evidence it contains will finally persuade them that they can longer deny justice to the Finucane family and the other families affected.

The inquest into the death of Diarmuid O'Neill, shot during a police raid in London in September 1966, opened on 31st January. After a hearing lasting two weeks, the jury returned a verdict of lawful killing, despite hearing that armed police officers involved in the raid were themselves overcome by CS gas, as were Diarmuid O'Neill and his associates, all of whom we unarmed. We continue to have grave concerns about this case, and we will be making a further submission to the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Extra Judicial Executions.

On 2nd February we had a further meeting with Colin Port, who is in charge of the police investigation into the murder of Rosemary Nelson. We expressed concern about the fact that he continues to be based at Lurgan RUC station and to have RUC officers in his team.

An application by lawyers representing the families of those who died and those injured on Bloody Sunday have sought a postponement of the 27th March commencement date for the hearing, saying that many vital documents have not yet been disclosed. Their application has been refused and may become the subject of a legal challenge. When the Bloody Sunday Inquiry does commence, we hope to have a full-time observer there and we will be posting regular progress reports on our website. Meanwhile, it has been discovered that the Ministry of Defence has destroyed most of the weapons fired by soldiers on Bloody Sunday, even after the Bloody Sunday Inquiry asked them to preserve the evidence, and the Prime Minister's assurance of full government co-operation in the new inquiry. A police investigation is now under way.

A general meeting of the Bar Counsel of Northern Ireland has overwhelmingly backed its two members who are challenging the form of declaration taken by Queen's Counsel. In doing so, the Bar has shown itself to be committed to non-sectarian practices and equality of opportunity within its ranks. Their action gives the lie to the extraordinary accusation made by the Lord Chief Justice in a letter disclosed during the court case that barristers who opposed the current declaration's reference to the Queen were involved in a "politically-based campaign".

One of the quieter reviews to have been taking place in recent months has been an internal government review of the Diplock Courts. Surprisingly, we were not invited to make a submission to this review, but we have made one anyway, arguing for the repeal of all emergency laws. Such a repeal would automatically close down the Diplock Courts, which sit without a jury and deny defendants due process rights they enjoy in the ordinary criminal courts.

On 16th February I met Simon Ford, the new producer of the BBC's Rough Justice programme to discuss some of the outstanding miscarriages of justice arising out of the conflict in Northern Ireland. I have also agreed to meet members of the Criminal Cases Review Commission to explore some of our concerns about their handling of Northern Ireland cases.

On 8th February I attended a briefing sponsored by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust on the moves to introduce a Bill of Rights for the European Union. It remains to be seen whether the Bill becomes a reality and whether it will improve on the standards set by the European Convention on Human Rights.

On 4th February I taught a seminar on monitoring human rights for the Human Rights Centre at the University of Nottingham.

I will be attending the United Nations Commission on Human Rights next month, when the Special Rapporteurs on lawyers, freedom of expression, torture and extra-judicial executions are all expected to comment on the UK's human rights record. On 11th February I attended a meeting at the Foreign Office, organised by the United Nations Association, with the UK's UN ambassador, Audrey Glover, where I had an opportunity to brief her on some of our concerns.

The recent acquittal of soldier Ian Clegg on the outstanding charge against him has left the parents of young joyriders Karen Reilly and Martin Peake, killed by soldiers who opened fire on their stolen car in September 1990, with no redress. As has so often been the case where people have died at the hands of the security forces in disputed circumstances, the legal system has utterly failed the families of those who died. Those of us who have monitored this case over the past ten years cannot forget the mural that appeared in the soldiers' canteen, bearing the slogan (which was a parody of the advertising campaign for the type of car they had stolen), "Vauxhall Astra. Built by robots. Driven by joyriders. Stopped by A Company." Karen was 17, Martin was 18. They were unarmed.

Although the level of violence in Northern Ireland since 1994 has mercifully been much lower than it was before the ceasefires of that year, many people would be surprised to learn that some 130 people have lost their lives since August 1994. The most recent victims were David McIlwaine and Andrew Robb, aged only 18 and 19 years. Every one of these deaths was one too many.

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