14/04/2004
UN hears of government's lack of support on human rights
The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) has criticised the Government's lack of support for human rights in the province, during an address to the United Nations today.
Addressing the 60th Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, the Commission highlighted in its address, major concerns about the response of the UK Government to a range of issues, including support provided to the Commission.
Acknowledging that the most serious and systemic violations of human rights in Northern Ireland continue to be those perpetrated by non-state actors, the Commission went on to describe a range of issues about which the Government must be brought to task.
Prime among these is the need for international, independent, judicial inquiries to be held into the findings of the Cory Report and others of collusion occurring in the 1980s and 1990s between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries.
Professor Brice Dickson from the NIHRC, said: “It is regrettable that, while in some respects there has been positive progress in establishing systems to protect human rights in Northern Ireland, there have been alarming failures by Government to introduce measures to address critical problems.
"It is disturbing to note that there are still over 2,000 unsolved murders dating from before the Good Friday Peace Agreement of 1998 which have not been effectively investigated. Independent, public, judicial inquiries are also urgently needed into the findings of an independent review, of evidence of collusion between the agents of the state and paramilitaries.
"In the context of ongoing human rights violations it is all the more disappointing that the Government has not given the support we might reasonably expect to the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, the only institution of its kind in the UK.”
Professor Dickson confirmed that meetings of the European National Institutions and of the International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions are also being held in Geneva this week, which he will attend.
(MB)
Addressing the 60th Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, the Commission highlighted in its address, major concerns about the response of the UK Government to a range of issues, including support provided to the Commission.
Acknowledging that the most serious and systemic violations of human rights in Northern Ireland continue to be those perpetrated by non-state actors, the Commission went on to describe a range of issues about which the Government must be brought to task.
Prime among these is the need for international, independent, judicial inquiries to be held into the findings of the Cory Report and others of collusion occurring in the 1980s and 1990s between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries.
Professor Brice Dickson from the NIHRC, said: “It is regrettable that, while in some respects there has been positive progress in establishing systems to protect human rights in Northern Ireland, there have been alarming failures by Government to introduce measures to address critical problems.
"It is disturbing to note that there are still over 2,000 unsolved murders dating from before the Good Friday Peace Agreement of 1998 which have not been effectively investigated. Independent, public, judicial inquiries are also urgently needed into the findings of an independent review, of evidence of collusion between the agents of the state and paramilitaries.
"In the context of ongoing human rights violations it is all the more disappointing that the Government has not given the support we might reasonably expect to the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, the only institution of its kind in the UK.”
Professor Dickson confirmed that meetings of the European National Institutions and of the International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions are also being held in Geneva this week, which he will attend.
(MB)
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