Submission to UN Human Rights Committee Concerning Ireland’s Compliance With the Intl. Covenant on Civil & Political Rights
1st May 2000
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 British Irish Rights Watch is an independent non-governmental organisation and registered charity that monitors the human rights dimension of the conflict and the peace process in Northern Ireland. Our services are available to anyone whose human rights have been affected by the conflict, regardless of religious, political or community affiliations, and we take no position on the eventual constitutional outcome of the peace process.
1.2 Our remit extends to anyone in any country whose human rights have been affected by the conflict in Northern Ireland. Since the conflict has had severe consequences for people living in the Republic of Ireland, we work in that jurisdiction, as well as in Northern Ireland itself and in Britain. This report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee reflects concerns that have arisen from our work in Ireland since the Committee last considered its compliance with the ICCPR. Broadly speaking, those concerns revolve around three of the most important rights protected by the ICCPR: the right to life, freedom from torture, and the right to a fair trial.
1.3 British Irish Rights Watch enjoys good relations with the Irish government. We have often found them to be more responsive than the United Kingdom when it comes to human rights issues arising in Northern Ireland. For example, the Irish government was instrumental in persuading the UK government to hold a second public inquiry into the events known as Bloody Sunday, when 13 unarmed demonstrators were shot by the British army in 1972. Similarly, the Irish government has joined international calls for an inquiry into the murder in 1989 of Belfast lawyer Patrick Finucane. However, as this report shows, and perhaps like all governments around the world, the Irish government is less responsive when human rights violations that are its own responsibility are drawn to their attention.
2. THE IRISH GOVERNMENT AND HUMAN RIGHTS
2.1 Under the terms of the Good Friday peace agreement, the Irish government committed itself to taking a number of measures to strengthen human rights, in the following terms:
9. The Irish Government will also take steps to further strengthen the protection of human rights in its jurisdiction. The Government will, taking account of the work of the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution and the Report of the Constitution Review Group, bring forward measures to strengthen and underpin the constitutional protection of human rights. These proposals will draw on the European Convention on Human Rights and other international legal instruments in the field of human rights and the question of the incorporation of the ECHR will be further examined in this context. The measures brought forward would ensure at least an equivalent level of protection of human rights as will pertain in Northern Ireland. In addition, the Irish Government will:
Establish a Human Rights Commission with a mandate and remit equivalent to that within Northern Ireland;
Proceed with arrangements as quickly as possible to ratify the Council of Europe Framework Convention on National Minorities (already ratified by the UK);
Implement enhanced employment equality legislation;
Introduce equal status legislation; and
Continue to take further active steps to demonstrate its respect for the different traditions in the island of Ireland.
10. It is envisaged that there would be a joint committee of representatives of the two Human Rights Commissions, North and South, as a forum for consideration of human rights issues in the island of Ireland. The joint committee will consider, among other matters, the possibility of establishing a charter, open to signature by all democratic political parties, reflecting and endorsing agreed measures for the protection of the fundamental rights of everyone living in the island of Ireland.
2.2 The Agreement was signed on 10th April 1998. Ireland has been much slower than the UK in establishing a human rights commission. The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission was set up on 1st March 1999, whereas the legislation for establishing its Irish counterpart has only recently become law. Although we welcome the creation of a human rights commission, we have a number of concerns about the way Ireland is going about it. First, the new commission will come under the auspices of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. Many of the human rights violations arising in Ireland that we have examined have involved the activities of the Garda Su00edochu00e1na[1]