Director's Report June/July 2000

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June/July 2000

The absence of the predicted eruption at Drumcree this year seems to have been due to three main factors. First, the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly put democracy back into the Northern Ireland equation. Secondly, resolute action by the army prevented a stand-off. Thirdly, and very importantly, public opinion has turned against the outmoded bigotry that underlies the Orange Order's stance. It never pays to be complacent where Northern Ireland is concerned, and we must not forget the recent victims of sectarian attacks and arson. Hopefully, though, this summer will bring us one step closer to the day when the Drumcree parade is nothing more than a colourful pageant to be enjoyed by everyone.

In July we sent a briefing to the House of Lords in time for the Second Reading of the Policing (Northern Ireland) Bill, in which we urged them to

· strengthen the powers of the Policing Ombudsman, to allow her to investigate policies and practices as well as individual cases, to actively monitor policing in public order situations such as Drumcree, and to enable her to have access to past records;
· remove the Secretary of State's power of veto over the Police Authority's powers of investigation and the ban on their looking at past abuses; and
· give the Oversight Commissioner a key role in implementing the Patten proposals.

We stressed the importance of ensuring that policing really does change in Northern Ireland if the Catholic community is to have any confidence in it.

On 12th and 13th July I travelled to Geneva to meet, together with the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, members of the UN Human Rights Committee, who were about to consider Ireland's record in upholding the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. We made a detailed written submission to the Committee, which highlighted our concerns about the no-jury Special Criminal Court; the deaths of John Morris and Rónán MacLochlainn at the hands of a special police unit; alleged collusion in the Dublin and Monaghan and the Dundalk bombings and the murder of Seamus Ludlow; and allegations of ill-treatment in custody. We also raised the harassment of our researcher, Mary McKeown, when she went to Ireland to investigate claims of ill-treatment. The Committee considered Ireland's own report over a two-day period, and asked many searching questions. In its concluding observations, the Committee recommended, among other things:

· that complaints against An Garda Síochána should not be investigated by their own officers
· there should be an independent and public investigation into deaths caused by the police
· an end to the Special Criminal Court
· that all aspects of detention, including seven-day detention and the availability of legal aid be brought into line with the standards set by the ICCPR
· improvements in prison conditions and the creation of a complaints system for prisoners.

We are delighted to acknowledge no less than three grants in the past few weeks. The Hilda Mullen Foundation have made a second donation of $15,000 towards our work on human rights and the peace process. The Ruben and Elisabeth Rausing Trust have made a third contribution, this year of £15,000, towards the same project. The Catherine Scorer Memorial Trust has made us a third grant, this time of £10,000, which represents a very generous proportion of their remaining funds prior to winding up the Trust. Although I never knew Cash Scorer, who died prematurely of cancer, some of those involved with British Irish RIGHTS WATCH knew her well. Herself a human right activist, Cash cared a great deal about Northern Ireland, and we have been very proud to receive support in her name. The Trust that was set up in her memory has helped to keep her spirit alive, and we would like to think that she would have approved of our work. We are extremely grateful for all three donations. We also gratefully acknowledge a gift from a lawyer who prefers to remain anonymous, who very generously paid off the large and very late bill we received for mobile telephone calls made at the time of Rosemary Nelson's death.

We would also like to thank the Committee on the Administration of Justice, who have nominated British Irish RIGHTS WATCH for the second time for the Roger Baldwin Medal of Liberty. Endorsement for our work from a body such as CAJ, whose own work is so admirable, is greatly appreciated.

We were very pleased to hear that Thomas Green's case has been referred back to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. 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. At his trial the defence led evidence to show that he is more affected by anxiety than most people. He has always denied the murder. We are glad that our long-held concerns about this conviction have now been validated by the CCRC.

Gerard Magee also claimed that a confession was extracted from him by ill-treatment and in the absence of legal advice. He received a 20-year sentence for an attack on soldiers in an Antrim housing estate in 1988, which he denies having committed. The European Court, which has taken 8 years to deal with his case, held that his right to a fair trial had been violated. The Court found that because of the oppressive regime in Castlereagh he should not have been denied access to his lawyer. Although now released from jail, Gerard Magee lost many years in prison.

We have written to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland urging a public inquiry into the murder of Robert Hamill, following the Coroner's decision not to hold an inquest because of fears for the safety of key witnesses. The Hamill family have been failed by the criminal justice system at every turn. No-one has been convicted of this vicious murder, the RUC officers who allegedly failed to intervene have not been disciplined or prosecuted, and there is not even to be an inquest. Only a public inquiry will serve, now.

I attended a meeting at the annual general meeting of the American Bar Association on 18th July to discuss intimidation of defence lawyers in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland lawyers, the Law Societies of Northern Ireland and England & Wales, Amnesty International, CAJ, and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights also met with a number of ABA representatives to discuss working together to bring about an end to intimidation of defence lawyers in Northern Ireland. Sadly, despite improved safeguards during police interviews and the changing climate in Northern Ireland, the attitude of some RUC officers towards lawyers continues to put their lives at risk, as one lawyer who attended graphically recounted. An acid test of the government's reforms of policing will be whether those attitudes become a thing of the past.

Earlier this year we made a submission to the government's internal review of the Diplock courts. The review team have now published their report. Depressingly, it recommends the retention of no-jury trials, because of what it describes as "the very real danger of jury intimidation", despite the fact that trial by jury has co-existed with the Diplock courts throughout the conflict, without any significant level of intimidation. The review team also recommend retention of mandatory Diplock trial for scheduled offences and more restrictive bail provisions. Their only positive recommendation, which we welcome, is the abolition of the lower threshold for the admission of confession evidence. Once again, our low expectations of internal reviews have been met.

A warm welcome to Lisa Yu, who is interning with us this summer from the USA. Lisa is working primarily on helping us to archive a large volume of documents relating to collusion in Northern Ireland.

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