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FEBRUARY
2010
BIRW UPDATE
LESSONS FROM south africa FOR DEALING WITH THE PAST
BIRW Director Jane Winter’s report on her recent trip to South Africa is now available on our website. She has drawn 17 lessons from South African experience for dealing with the problematic past in Northern Ireland. One of them is the need for a common set of values for moving forward into the future, which makes the debate around a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland all the more crucial. Perhaps the strongest lesson she learned is that dealing with the past is too important to be left in the hands of the politicians; civil society must also play its part.
DE-commissioning body is de-commissioned
This month saw the coming to an end of the remit of the International Body on De-commissioning. At the eleventh hour the republican paramilitary group INLA announced that its weapons had been put beyond use, leaving the dissident Real and Continuity IRA republican groups and the loyalist LVF as the only organisations yet to lay down their weapons. Until they do so, the Patten Commission recommendation that one day the police would be routinely unarmed in Northern Ireland remains a distant prospect.
ROBERT HAMILL INQUIRY MAKES RECOMMENDATION TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
On 29th January the Robert Hamill Inquiry delivered a brief interim report to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Details are expected to be published in the first week of March. The report contains a single, urgent recommendation.
COLIN WORTON LOSES HIS JUDICIAL REVIEW
Judge Treacy has ruled that there was no serious default on the part of police officers who obtained a false confession from Colin Worton to the murder of Adrian Carroll in 1983. Colin Worton spent two and a half years in jail on remand before being acquitted of the murder. Ironically, had he been convicted, he might well have qualified for compensation, but as an innocent man he falls under an ex-gratia scheme, which neither the Secretary of State nor, it would seem, the courts, consider covers him. BIRW observed the hearing and have liaised with his legal team.
AND THE SAME FOR SINN FÉIN MLA
Sinn Fein MLA Raymond McCartney, whose murder conviction was quashed, has lost his appeal for compensation. Journalist Eamonn MacDermott also failed in the same appeal. Both men were ordered to pay the costs of bringing their latest legal challenge. Raymond McCartney and Eamonn MacDermott were cleared of murder in February 2007 after judges declared unease about the safety of guilty verdicts. The men had argued that substantial compensation was due for time spent in prison. Raymond McCartney served more than 17 years after being convicted of killing industrialist Jeff Agate and Special Branch detective Patrick McNulty in Londonderry in 1977. Eamon MacDermott, now a Londonderry-based journalist, spent 15 years behind bars for Constable McNulty's murder. Both men denied involvement and said that police officers fabricated confessions. After their cases were referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, judges ruled the convictions should be quashed. But dismissing their compensation appeals, Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan said: “The new evidence was sufficient to give rise to unease about the safety of the conviction, but this is a case in which at its height it can only be said that the appellants might not have been convicted.” He added: “Accordingly the claims for compensation cannot succeed.”
REAL IRA ADMITS TO KILLING
The Real IRA has said it murdered a man who was found shot dead, stripped and bound in Derry on Wednesday. In a statement to a local journalist, the organisation said it had killed Kieran Doherty, 31, a former republican prisoner from the Brandywell area. The Real IRA claimed that Mr Doherty was a member of their dissident republican paramilitary organisation. The body of Mr Doherty, who had a two-year-old daughter, was found on Braehead Road, near the Irish border.
A BILL OF RIGHTS FOR NORHTERN IRELAND DEFENDED
On 22nd February Professor Colin Harvey of Queen’s University Belfast and Professor Aileen McColgan of King’s College London spoke in spirited defence of a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland at a discussion at the King’s School of Law, chaired by former CAJ Director Maggie Beirne. Colin Harvey emphasised that the advice given by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission to the Secretary of State was mandated by the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and that the thinking behind that Advice had been decades in the making. Aileen McColgan explained that very careful thought had been given by the Commission to the particular circumstances of Northern Ireland, while the Bill of Rights Forum has striven to make the consultation that preceded the advice widely inclusive. Jane Winter attended on our behalf.
BIRW SPONSOR SPEAKS IN DUBLIN
One of BIRW’s Sponsors, Professor Kader Asmal, gave the inaugural lecture for the new multi-disciplinary Centre for Post-Conflict Justice at Trinity College Dublin on 25th February on the topic “Post-Conflict Justice: An Industry or a Necessity”. Not surprisingly, perhaps, he concluded that it is a necessity, but he explained that each situation requires its own solution, and that there are many ways of delivering justice. Controversially, he warned that Northern Ireland will not be able to deal with its problematic past until all parties are prepared to face up to that past.
bloody Sunday victims seek equal treatment over report
The families of the victims and the survivors of Bloody Sunday are seeking the simultaneous release of the report of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, due out on 22nd March, to themselves and to the Northern Ireland Office. As matters stand, the NIO will have the report 14 days before the Bloody Sunday relatives, to check for right to life and national security implications, both of which Lord Saville is likely to have firmly in mind when drafting the report. BIRW has put out a press release, available on our website, supporting the families’ call for equal treatment.
MEETING THE POLICING BOARD’S HUMAN RIGHTS ADVISOR
Having attended the launch of the Policing Board’s examination of the compliance of the PSNI with the Human Rights Act (1998), the author of the report Alyson Kilpatrick BL who is the Human Rights Advisor to the Board met BIRW at our office in London. We had a productive meeting with her where she briefed us on her report and her future plans. BIRW urges the Policing Board to fully resource the office of the Human Rights Advisor.
THE RIGHT TO USE THE IRISH LANGUAGE IN NORTHERN IRELAND’S COURTS
Research and Casework Manager Christopher Stanley attended the appeal by Caomhin Mac Giolla Cathain. Mr Cathain applied for judicial review of a decision to withhold a liquor licence because he was only prepared to apply in Irish rather than English. Mr Justice Treacy dismissed the application but permission was given to take the application to the Court of Appeal. Mr Cathain’s lawyers argued that the Administration of Justice (Language) Act (Ireland) 1737 was incompatible with Article 6 of the European Convention (on fair trial), and Article 7(2) of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages, in that there is a legitimate expectation that the UK will act consistently with its international obligations. BIRW made a third party intervention in this application. Judgment was reserved.
colm Murphy acquitted of omagh bombing
The only man jailed in connection with the 1998 Omagh bombing has been cleared following a retrial by the non-jury Special Criminal Court in Dublin. Colm Murphy, 57, from County Louth, was jailed for 14 years in 2002, but won an appeal against his conviction in 2005, resulting in the retrial. On 24 February 2010 Mr Justice Butler ruled that the evidence two gardai detectives, who had been accused by the original trial judge of consistent perjury in relation to interview notes, was inadmissible. Yet again, the criminal justice system, while putting right a miscarriage of justice, as it must, has failed the Omagh victims. Colm Murphy is, of course, innocent in the eyes of the law, but the fact remains that no-one has been brought to justice for the Omagh bombing and that every aspect of the police investigations, north and south of the border, has been flawed. We support the Omagh victims’ call for an independent, cross-border public inquiry into the bombing and the police investigation.
SUBMISSION TO THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS
A submission has been made to the Council of Ministers in relation to the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland and the scope of his powers; of particular concern was the fact that not all those working for the police’s Historical Enquiries Team come under the remit of the Ombudsman.
AND TO THE UNITED NATIONS
The UK Government recently decided to issue a mid-review cycle statement to the Universal Periodic Review mechanism, operated by the United Nations Human Rights Council. The token consultation process and our concerns about the Government’s commitment to engage productively with civil society has meant we have issued our own shadow statement.
BREACHING LICENCE CONDITIONS: NEW CLIENTS FOR BIRW
BIRW has gained several new clients this month, with a particular focus on former prisoners and the implications of breaching the conditions of licence. We have also continued to carry out research into compensation issues for prisoners, whose conviction were quashed, but have been consistently denied compensation.
NICEM CONFERENCE ON THE BILL OF RIGHTS
BIRW Researcher Caroline Parkes attended a fascinating conference organised by the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities (NICEM), which highlighted the disappointment felt by many in civil society at the disastrous consultation paper issued by the Government on the Bill of Rights. Speakers such as Professor Monica McWilliams, Chief Commissioner of the NIHRC and Dr Catherine Donnelley, provided excellent analysis of the consultation and the importance of a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.
THE STATE AND TORTURE: A WELCOME DECISION AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT
The Foreign Secretary has lost an Appeal Court bid to stop the disclosure of secret information relating to the alleged torture of a UK resident. Ethiopian-born Binyam Mohamed says UK authorities knew he was tortured at the behest of US authorities during seven years of captivity. Foreign Secretary David Miliband had said releasing the material would harm national security. Judges ruled redacted paragraphs, which say his treatment was "cruel, inhuman and degrading", should be released. The redacted paragraphs have now been published on the Foreign Office website. They say that at the time he was being held by Pakistani interrogators at the behest of the US, Binyam Mohamed was intentionally subjected to continuous sleep deprivation during this period. Along with the sleep deprivation, it says the interrogators subjected him to threats and inducements, including playing on his fears that he would be passed on to another country. The Lord Chief Justice commented "The treatment reported, if it had been administered on behalf of the United Kingdom would clearly have been in breach of the ban on torture.”
The Court of Appeal followed this up with publishing the word criticising MI5 in the judgment. The Appeal Court decided that the robust criticism contained in the original wording should be published “in the interests of open justice”. The paragraph explains how MI5 had stressed to Parliamentarians that they “operated in a culture that respected human rights and that coercive techniques were alien to the service’s general ethics, methodology and training.” Lord Neuberger’s final paragraph goes on to say “Yet in this case that does not seem to have been true: as the evidence shows, some Security Service officials appear to have a dubious record relating to actual involvement, and frankness about any such involvement, with the mistreatment of Mr Mohammed when he was held at the behest of US Officials.”
DECISION TIME ON THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
BIRW has joined with other NGOs to support Amnesty International’s representations to a conference which took place this month in Interlaken, Switzerland where the states of the Council of Europe scrutinised the operation of the European Court of Human Rights. We endorsed Amnesty International’s request that, “What is needed is political will. Political will by the 47 Council of Europe states to respect the European Convention on Human Rights, to ensure effective domestic remedies for violations of Convention rights, to ensure the implementation of the Court’s judgments and to adequately resource the European Court of Human Rights and the Department of Execution of Judgments”. Follow the link to the relevant website: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/IOR61/009/2009/en/44fd6906-6aa2-41fd-a7a1-924bfd576501/ior610092009en.pdf
MICHAEL CAMPBELL AND PRISON CONDITIONS IN LITHUANIA
A prisons inspector is to travel to Lithuania to see Michael Campbell who is being prosecuted over alleged arms smuggling for the Real IRA. He has been given permission for a meeting with Michael Campbell, who has been detained since 2008 in connection with the alleged offences. However, he will not be allowed to inspect the jail where Michael Campbell is being held. Details emerged as extradition proceedings against his brother Liam Campbell were adjourned in Belfast. It heard the visit by Professor Rod Morgan, the special adviser to the British Home Office and the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture, will take place at a visitors centre at the Lukiskes compound in Vilnius. In evidence at Liam Campbell’s extradition hearing in Belfast Professor Morgan criticised prison regimes in Lithuania as part of his assessment that he would suffer inhuman or degrading treatment if taken there.
28 FEBRUARY 2010
For Peace Justice & Human Rights
