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Council of Europe Human Rights Prize
Awards Ceremony, Strasbourg
Tuesday, 22 September 1998

I would like to begin by thanking the Council of Europe for the very great honour which it has bestowed on the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) by awarding us the Council of Europe Human Rights Prize. I would also like to thank Thomas Hammarberg the Swedish Ambassador for Human Rights and Lord Anthony Lester who proposed CAJ for this prize. The award is a recognition of the contribution which we have made to the protection and promotion of human rights in Northern Ireland since our foundation in 1981. This award is dedicated to everyone who assisted CAJ during those years, and who helped in bringing our society to the point at which real and lasting peace is now within our reach. Perhaps most importantly however it honours the work which CAJ, its staff and volunteers have done to ensure that the protection of human rights is central to the historic Good Friday Peace Agreement. That Agreement states that "The tragedies of the past have left a deep and profoundly regrettable legacy of suffering. We must never forget those who have died or been injured and their families. But we can best honour them through a fresh start in which we firmly dedicate ourselves to the achievement of reconciliation, tolerance, and mutual trust, and to the protection and vindication of the human rights of all." CAJ endorses these sentiments entirely. We have consistently maintained that human rights issues were at the heart of the conflict and that the protection of human rights must be central to building a lasting peace. It is exciting to see that human rights commitments have been given institutional form as an intrinsic element of the Agreement. This was then ratified by over 70% of the population in Northern Ireland. The language of Human rights has moved from the margins to the mainstream. However, while it is right to celebrate how far we have come, we have not yet reached our destination. Now the task ahead is to turn rhetoric into reality. This is particularly true of the new human rights structures established under the Agreement. These include a new human rights commission, a commission on policing, a review of the criminal justice system and new arrangements to promote equality. It is crucial that the will for change and lasting peace is given full expression in the institutions yet to be established. It is the task of civil servants to deliver on the commitments made. It is not acceptable that they should in any way obstruct, or dilute these commitments. It is equally the responsibility of ministers and politicians to ensure that those commitments are honoured. If we take for example the proposed human rights commission, the current legislative proposals fall far short of that goal. Such a commission needs to be fully independent, it needs to be able to take cases of its own volition, and most importantly, it must be able to undertake investigations into alleged violations of human rights. The current legislative proposals should therefore be amended to ensure a genuinely independent commission, adequately equipped with the above powers to act as guarantor for the rights of everyone in Northern Ireland. We are similarly concerned that the legislative proposals on Equality fail to measure up fully to the commitments made in the agreement. The continued support and attention of the international community will be key to ensuring that all of the human rights commitments contained in the Agreement are implemented in full. While the agreement offers the hope of a bright future, it is also clear that it is all to easy to repeat the mistakes of the past. This was clearly demonstrated in the wake of the horrific Omagh bombing. The government recognised that the intention of those who planted the bomb had been to undermine the Agreement. However, rather than heeding the need (acknowledged in the agreement) to move away from Emergency legislation, the government instead chose to introduce perhaps the most draconian legislation that we have seen in the last thirty years. Similar legislation has in the past not simply failed to resolve the conflict, it has actually fuelled it by undermining respect for the rule of law. We cannot allow our society to be dragged back into the tragedy from which we are emerging. A future for all the people of Ireland, underpinned by the human rights protections of the Agreement, is too precious a prize to risk by repeating the mistakes of the past. In so doing, we play into the hands of all of those who would seek to wreck the Agreement. Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank the British and Irish governments for their warm congratulations on being awarded this prize. As a human rights organisation which is frequently critical of government (as you may have spotted a few moments ago in this speech), we are unaccustomed to such congratulations and will enjoy them while they last. In the months and indeed years to come, adapting an old Irish prayer of St Patrick, we can promise the following. We will walk at your side acknowledging when you do right, we will occasionally walk ahead encouraging you to do the right thing. And when you stray from the path of human righteousness, we will be there, walking at your heels to remind you.