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Washington, D.C., March 14, 2001 - Three years after the Good Friday Agreement, pressing human rights concerns remain in Northern Ireland, according to organizations that monitor violations there.
The U.S. House of Representatives will address progress toward a new Bill of Rights, criminal justice reform, and the fundamental reform of the police (Royal Ulster Constabulary, or RUC) - at hearings Thursday before the House Committee on International Relations Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights.
Representatives from Human Rights First, the Committee on the Administration of Justice, and British Irish Rights Watch will testify at the hearing. “'The success of the peace process can be measured by how much the human rights situation has improved in Northern Ireland,” said Mike Posner, Executive Director of Human Rights First in his testimony before Congress. “'We must ensure that the international community continues to press the British government to uphold the human rights guarantees in the Agreement.”
Signed in 1998, the Good Friday Agreement set out a framework for peace that required major changes in the way the government relates to individuals in Northern Ireland. A “new beginning” for policing was promised, as was a reform of the criminal justice system and a written Bill of Rights.
In the time since, proposals for policing and criminal justice reform have been presented to the UK government. But action has been slow, the human rights experts say. On policing, the UK government has weakened the accountability and oversight mechanisms recommended by the commission created to review the police (RUC). Human rights advocates fear that the recommended reforms to the criminal justice system might be subject to similar revisions.
The hearing is scheduled to coincide with the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day and the second anniversary of the bombing death of Rosemary Nelson, a human rights attorney who was killed on March 15, 1999. Although a paramilitary organization claimed responsibility for her death, human rights groups have demanded an independent public inquiry because of evidence that Nelson was threatened by members of the RUC before her death.
The hearing will begin at 9:30 am in Room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building. Web coverage at: http://www.house.gov/international_relations/ [click on “Committee Schedule”].
The Committee on the Administration of Justice works for a just and peaceful society in Northern Ireland where the rights of all are protected.
British Irish Rights Watch is an independent non-governmental organisation that has been monitoring the human rights dimension of the conflict, and latterly the peace process, in Northern Ireland since 1990.