Human Rights in Northern Ireland: an opportunity for further progress

On 20th January 2003, the following statement was issued on behalf of Amnesty International, British Irish Rights Watch, Committee on the Administration of Justice, Human Rights Watch, Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Liberty, and the Scottish Human Rights Centre.

Given the prospect of renewed political negotiations in Northern Ireland, we urge that  human rights issues be at the heart of such discussions.  We believe that it is appropriate at this juncture to re-state the human rights concerns that we think deserve particular attention.   Our eight organisations have consistently argued that human rights abuses have fed and fuelled the conflict in Northern Ireland.  We believe that the conflict, and the human rights abuses associated with it, have also had a significant negative impact on the protection of civil liberties throughout Britain and Ireland. 

Peace cannot be permanently secured without addressing the long-term protection of everyone’s human rights and, despite the advances in recent years, obstacles have have been placed in the way of change.  Much still remains to be done to effect real change on the ground.  Accordingly, we call on governments, political parties and broader civil society to commit themselves to developing concrete benchmarks against which progress in the advancement of human rights and equality in Northern Ireland and all neighbouring jurisdictions can be delivered.

In particular, we call for:

1.         political commitment to the process of developing, legislating for, and subsequently enforcing a strong and inclusive Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.

2.        the establishment of mechanisms for dealing with Northern Ireland’s legacy of past human rights abuses.  Mechanisms are needed to ensure accountability for human rights abuses, with a view to ending impunity, and such mechanisms must operate in accordance with international human rights principles.

3.        the repeal of emergency legislation, which undermines rather than ensures people’s security.

4.        guarantees to ensure that the outcome of any devolution of policing and criminal justice responsibilities in Northern Ireland be compliant with   human rights norms.  Consideration should be given to establishing an expert independent commission with international human rights expertise to advise on these issues.

5.         compliance with recommendations by human rights treaty bodies, most recently the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

6.        the  building on and advancing of efforts to mainstream human rights and equality considerations into all policy making, in particular the Assembly and its scrutiny committees, the  Executive, the public service, and – of particular importance also to the other jurisdictions - the North-South Ministerial Council, the British-Irish Council and the British-Irish Inter-Governmental Conference. 

7.        the carrying out of independent reviews into the work of the statutory bodies created explicitly to further the human rights and equality agenda in Northern Ireland - the Human Rights Commission and the Equality Commission.  The reviews should assess what further powers, resources, and changes are needed for these bodies to enhance their capacity to conform to best international practice for such work. 

 8.         a renewed effort to resource local community and participatory initiatives to address deep social divisions,  including sectarianism and other forms of discrimination, segregation, and continuing high levels of violence in Northern Ireland. Detailed programmes of action must be urgently developed to address problems such as racism, violence in the home, and particularly sectarianism.  Human rights language, concepts and principles have much to offer to tackling these problems.

9.         tackling socio-economic inequalities and long term unemployment, much more effectively than has been the case to date.  The political will to set clear targets and timetables for change, and then to bring those targets about, is vital.

10.        a re-visiting of several of the human rights concerns addressed in the Agreement which have received relatively little attention.  The concerns there around language, cultural diversity, the importance of women participating in public life, unemployment differentials, the needs of victims, of ex-prisoners, of young people, and the need to promote efforts at reconciliation and greater tolerance, require re-visiting and receiving more priority than has been the case to date.

This programme focuses on Northern Ireland, since that is largely the focus of the current political discussions.  However, the conflict has had an impact on the neighbouring jurisdictions; it is our fervent hope that human rights advances made in Northern Ireland will have an impact throughout these islands.  The Irish government has already committed itself in the Agreement to ensuring in the Republic at least an equivalent level of human rights protection as prevails in Northern Ireland.  Realisation of this commitment will contribute significantly to advancing an environment for progress.

We believe that, in conformity with their international obligations, both the UK and Irish governments should ensure effective protection of human rights throughout these islands.   

 [[Note: Signatory organisations have different mandates. Some do not work on socio-economic rights, others differ about how best to ensure effective accountability for past human rights abuses.  All share an interest in human rights in NI, and agree on the importance of the international human rights principles that give rise to this general action programme.]