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DECEMBER 2002
ROSEMARY NELSON
Colin Port has said
that he is stepping down for personal reasons from leading the investigation
into the 1999 murder of Lugan solicitor Rosemary Nelson.
On 12th December Paul Mageean of the Committee on the
Administration of Justice and I met Colin Port for a final discussion about the
investigation. I would like to take
this opportunity to thank Colin Port publicly for his readiness to meet the NGOs
throughout his investigation and to discuss our concerns.
We for our part have done everything in our power to assist him.
However, some of our concerns, especially in relation to allegations of
official collusion in this brutal murder, have not been fully addressed.
Following Colin Port’s resignation, Rosemary Nelson’s parents and
siblings issued a press release expressing their disappointment that, nearly
four years later, no-one has been charged with her murder, and re-iterating
their call for a full public inquiry. We
support their call.
ngos jaw jaw
On 10th
December – International Human Rights Day – BIRW, CAJ and Amnesty
International met in Belfast to discuss ways to ensure that human rights issues
do not become the casualties of the current crisis in the Northern Ireland peace
process. A week later, the
political talks went into melt down after a hapless Irish government official
left an internal assessment of the situation behind after a meeting and a
journalist then broadcasted it. Recently
released census figures show that Northern Ireland is 44% Catholic and 53%
Protestant. Such finely balanced
numbers make talk of majorities and minorities almost meaningless.
The political chasms in Northern Ireland cannot be bridged by silence, by
refusals to talk to one another, by exclusions.
There is only one cure for the Troubles: dialogue and mutual respect.
If the politicians cannot grasp this, then the governments must continue
to make progress on other fronts, particularly that of human rights.
There is only one alternative to jaw jaw, and that is war war.
oversight
commissioner for the reform of criminal justice
We welcome Secretary of State Paul Murphy’s announcement
this month that there is to be an oversight commissioner to supervise the reform
of the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland.
Surprisingly, the Criminal Justice Review Team omitted to recommend such
an appointment, which in our view if essential if the complex set of reforms
they have proposed is to produce a coherent system of criminal justice.
We hope that the person appointed will be someone with the vision to
propel criminal justice in Northern Ireland into the twenty first century.
judge cory
I spent 19th
December in Belfast attending briefings set up by the Irish government for the
families of Billy Wright, Robert Hamill, Patrick Finucane and Rosemary Nelson.
These are four of the six cases being considered by Canadian judge Peter
Cory. All four families are seeking
public inquiries, and none of them asked for this behind-closed-doors
examination of their cases. Judge Cory has assured them that he will not be drawn into
any sectarian arithmetical exercise, but will examine each case on its merits,
and that if he finds any sign of collusion he will recommend public inquiries.
He has also said, wisely in our view, that he will not declare his
findings individually but will publish the results of all his deliberations
together, probably in October 2003.
annual
report, annual appeal
BIRW’s 2002
annual report is now available on our website.
With it we launched our annual Human Rights Day appeal.
Donations are already beginning to arrive, and we are very grateful to
those of you who responded so promptly. I
hope that everyone who thinks our work is important will consider sending us a
donation. I can promise that every
penny we receive will be put to good use, helping to remedy human rights
violations arising out of the conflict and to cement respect for human rights
into the peace process.
monitoring
sectarian crime
Following the
PSNI’s conference last October on racism, we have been in correspondence with
them concerning sectarianism. Despite
the very high level of sectarian crime in Northern Ireland, the PSNI keeps no
statistics about it. Her
Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary pointed this out in their 1999/2000
report, but their recommendation for proper monitoring has yet to be
implemented. It seems to us that
the production of figures on the level and sources of sectarian crime might
provide a basis for starting to tackle this scurge.
teaching
at ics
On 5th
December I taught a large and lively group of post graduate students about how
to lobby for human rights, as part of their masters degree in understanding
human rights.
festive
greetings
The BIRW office
will be closed from 24th December to 5th January
inclusive. May I take this
opportunity to wish all of you the compliments of the season and a very peaceful
New Year.
Jane Winter,
Director,
20th December 2002.
For Peace Justice & Human Rights
