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MARCH 2004
STEPHEN LIVINGSTONE
It is with deep regret that I report that Professor Stephen Livingstone went missing off the Antrim coast on 13th March, and is presumed dead. I first met Stephen when we lobbied the United Nations on my first trip there in August 1993. Stephen was already making his mark in the field of human rights and he went on to make a massive contribution. At the time of his disappearance he was on a sabbatical year from Queen’s University, Belfast, where he had headed the human rights centre, he was a member of the Northern Ireland Equality Commission, and he was a long-term member of the Committee on the Administration of Justice, which he at one time chaired. Stephen was always tremendously generous with his time. He spoke for free at BIRW seminars and I am sure I shall not be the only one to miss the ability to pick up the telephone to him whenever I had a particularly knotty human rights issue to resolve. His loss will be sorely felt across the human rights community, and his partner Karen is in our thoughts.
CORY REPORTS delivered to the families
On 31st March the UK government finally delivered the four reports addressed to it by Judge Cory to the families of Patrick Finucane, Robert Hamill, Billy Wright, and Rosemary Nelson. Unlike the two reports delivered to the Irish government, the UK reports had been heavily redacted. They are due to be laid before Parliament on 1st April, and the families have signed undertakings not to disclose the content of the reports before that date.
There cannot be any doubt that the reports would remain unpublished had it not been for American pressure and for a series of actions for judicial review launched by three of the families in the Northern Ireland courts.
MEETING WITH SPECIAL ADVISER REISS
On 8th March I met US Special Adviser on Northern Ireland, Mitchell Reiss, who has recently replaced Richard Haass. I had the opportunity discuss the Cory reports with him, and was encouraged to hear that he had raised the issue of publication of the reports at every meeting he has had with UK representatives.
MEETING WITH representative chris smith
On the same day I met Representative Chris Smith and briefed him on a wide range on human rights issues. He has maintained a long-term interest in human rights in Northern Ireland and as always his concern was genuine and the depth of his understanding was impressive.
CSCE COMMITTEE CONSIDERS POLICING
On 9th March the American Commission on Security and Co-operation in Europe, chaired by Representative Chris Smith, heard evidence from Michell Reiss, Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan, Elisa Massimino of Human Rights First (formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights), Paul Mageean of CAJ and Brenda McAllister of Mediation Northern Ireland. The main focus of the hearing was policing in Northern Ireland, but the Commission also heard evidence concerning other human rights issues that were either taking the peace process forward or holding it back. I also testified before the Commission, concerning the Cory reports.
PARTY, PARTY, PARTY
Also while I was in America, I attended the American Ireland Fund’s gala dinner as a guest of our dear friends the Dunfey family, and the St Patrick’s day reception at the White House.
COLIN WORTON MEETS IRISH MINISTER
On 24th March I travelled to Dublin to meet Minister of State Tom Kitt together with Colin Worton. Colin Worton was acquitted during the UDR Four trial but lost his job in the army and has never been compensated for the two and a half years he spent on remand in jail. The Minister’s response was warm and helpful, in sharp contrast to the response Colin Worton has received from British counterparts. For further information about his case, please see the report on our website.
SUPPORT FOR OUR WORK
We are pleased to acknowledge receipt of grants from the Atlantic Philanthropies, towards our core costs, and from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, also for core costs and an extension of their funding for our Bloody Sunday Observer. We are tremendously grateful to both trusts, who are regular supporters of our work, both financially and in the interest they take in our progress.
REPORT TO THE CENTRE FOR JUDGES AND LAWYERS
We have sent a report to the Centre for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers in Geneva on the situation of lawyers in Northern Ireland. In the report we have identified developments that have enhanced the safety of lawyers and those that have endangered them. Regrettably, despite the progress made in the peace process in Northern Ireland, there remains a small group of lawyers whose lives remain at risk, mainly from threats from loyalist paramilitaries.
LORDS RULE IN McKERR CASE
The House of Lords has handed down its ruling in the case of Gervaise McKerr, killed in an alleged shoot-to-kill incident in 1982. BIRW made a third party intervention in the case, which was about whether deaths that occurred before the European Convention on Human Rights was incorporated into domestic law are entitled to an effective investigation under Article 2, which protects the right to life. In what can only be described as a retrograde judgment, the Lords held that the European Convention on Human Rights had not been incorporated into domestic law. The Human Rights Act 1998, which came into force on 2nd October 2000, merely gave effect to Convention rights in domestic law. Cases arising from incidents which occurred before that date could not vindicate their Convention rights before the domestic courts. Furthermore, claims arising from the procedural rights stemming from Article 2, such as the right to an effective investigation, even if they arose after October 2000, could not engage Human Rights Act protection if the death happened before that date. This is a very disappointing outcome which may have closed the door on many old cases in Northern Ireland which have never received justice.
RESPONSES TO CONSULTATIONS
Somehow in an exceptionally busy month we have found time to respond to three requests for replies to consultation exercises: the Northern Ireland Court Service wanted to know what thought of their information services; the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission wanted our opinion of their communications strategy; and the Northern Ireland Prison Service wanted to know our views on minimum life sentences.
Jane Winter,
Director,
31st March 2004.
For Peace Justice & Human Rights
