Conference tallis::celt

    
    Amnesty International has done sterling work in Northern Ireland,
    and any effort to weed out from the security forces people who are 
    soft on the UDA should be supported.
    
    It is good to see that the UDR is to be totally professionalised
    and merged with a regular Irish regiment in the British army, the
    Royal Irish Rangers.
    
    As mentioned in the last note, Amnesty has been requested by some
    members of the Nationalist community to investigate human rights
    abuses by paramilitaries like the IRA and UDA. I am not
    sure what their response has been.
    
    Toby

  re. .1
 "any effort to weed out from the security forces people
  who are soft on the UDA should be supported."

  Did you read the report Toby?  Is that what you call it,
  being soft on the UDA? These security forces people
  are not "soft" on the UDA, they conspire to commit murder
  with them.
                      Mark

    Re: -1
    
    I would go beyond just jailing people who conspire to commit murder
    but remove anyone who was not even-handed in the administration of
    justice.

The Irish Times
July  6, 1995
Amnesty report targets human rights in search for North peace
By ANDY POLLAK


    AMNESTY International, in its 1995 report, has urged that "the protection of
human rights be placed centrally on the agenda in the search for a political
settlement in the context of the ceasefires in  Northern Ireland" .

   In the report, which covers the period from January to December 1994, the
international prisoners of conscience and human rights organisation repeats its
concern about several areas of abuse of justice in the North.
   It notes the concern of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture,
following a 1993 visit, that "detainees held under emergency legislation ran a
significant risk of psychological ill-treatment and, on occasion, of physical
ill-treatment".

   The committee's report emphasises the need for further safeguards, such as
immediate access to a solicitor, legal assistance during interrogation, and the
possible electronic recording of interrogations.

   Amnesty International expresses concern about the British government's
failure to refer to a judicial authority for review the life imprisonment of
three men convicted of the murder of two British army corporals in
Andersonstown, Belfast, in 1988.

   It reiterates its "long-standing concerns about the ineffectiveness of
inquests dealing with disputed killings by the security forces, as well as the
government's intervention in particular cases to block the disclosure on crucial
evidence".

   Ireland, Finland and Belgium are the only European Union countries Amnesty
International does not single out for criticism.

   The director of its Irish section, Ms Mary Lawlor, said yesterday, however,
that Amnesty was very concerned about the non-appearance of promised legislation
to protect asylum-seekers and refugees, "people who would face imprisonment,
torture or death if they were forcibly returned to their country of origin".

   She said the group wanted such legislation to provide interpretative services
and legal access as well as an independent hearing for asylum-seekers.


                       ___________________



The Irish Times
July  5, 1995
Groups lobby UN on human rights in NI


    RELATIVES of people shot dead by the security forces in  Northern Ireland
are in Geneva this week to lobby the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
about alleged violations by Britain. The Commission is to review Britain's
record at a two-day formal hearing later this month as part of a regular
five-yearly review.

   Members of the Commission are meeting this week to prepare for the hearing on
July 20th and 21st and are being lobbied by a range of organisations and
individuals who want the Commission to question the British government about
particular alleged violations of international human rights conventions.

   Among the organisations is Liberty, the London-based civil liberties group,
Britain-Ireland Human Rights Watch, and the Campaign for the Right to Truth
(CRT), a group of relatives of persons killed by loyalists and the security
forces in  Northern Ireland.
   The CRT delegation includes Father Raymond Murray Ms Eilish McAnespie, whose
brother Aidan was shot dead by a British soldier as he was walking through a
Border checkpoint Mr Mark Thompson, whose brother was shot dead by British
undercover soldiers in 1990 and Mr Martin Finucane, whose solicitor, brother,
Patrick, was murdered" by loyalists allegedly assisted by a British agent, in
February 1988.

   Mr Finucane said yesterday he wants the UN Committee to ask the British
government why it refuses to hold an independent inquiry into his brother's
murder.

   He is also anxious that the committee investigate the British government's
refusal to hold an independent inquiry into the shooting dead of 14 unarmed
civilians in Derry on Bloody-Sunday.

May I suggest that it would be a good idea if you were to post a
paraphrased version of the articles in question rather than the
entire unabridged version, possibly with a reference to the original
should anyone feel the need to check it out in its entirety?

Just a thought.

Chris.

re. .5

  Why certainly.
  For those whom 84 lines of text may seem daunting.
  "Amnesty International is concerned about continued British efforts to
   violate human rights".

>  "Amnesty International is concerned about continued British efforts to
>   violate human rights".

or a further abbreviation, "AI worries about human rights."  Er, perhaps
a bit too concise... :)

Chris.

    What are the previous few notes about? I'm quite happy to have the
    opportunity to read these reports in this conference. I mean your not
    going to see it on the BBC news. I know that it is embarrassing for us 
    British to be bombarded by this kind of stuff (even when we already
    agree with the sentiment). But I accept that the Amnesty 
    International reports posted here are accurate.
    
    rgds
    Mark 

I don't find the reports embarrasing, why should I?  I just pointed out
that I would prefer to read a paraphrased version.

Chris.

    Yeah well I wouldn't

>    Yeah well I wouldn't

fair enough, but I often don't have the time to wade through verbatim copies
in their entirety, so often don't bother to read them.  That's why I suggested
a summary with a pointer to the original document; or perhaps the originals
could be prefixed with a summary or comments by the contributor.

Chris.

    I have to agree with Chris.  I suspect my politics lean towards those of
    Holohan's, but whenever I encounter one of his 100+ line posts, it gets
    next-seened everytime. 
    
    Perhaps the best compromise would be a paragraph summary followed by
    the article itself.
    
    -- Jim

An Phoblacht/Republican News
Sept. 15, 1995



                           Editorial
                       Deplorable record

     ONCE AGAIN the deplorable human rights record of the British
government, a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights and the European Convention for the
Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms has received
international condemnation. Following hard on the heels of
criticisms from the UN Human Rights Committee in July 1995,
Amnesty International have published a Summary of Human Rights
Concerns, in which they outline a number of human rights
violations.

     Half the report deals with the Six Counties. And while
highlighting some of the 358 killings by members of the crown
forces from 1969 to 1994, and the ill-treatment of detainees held
by the RUC, Amnesty are particularly concerned by the failure of
the British legal system "to bring the perpetrators of human
rights violations to justice".

     Amnesty has "identified a disturbing pattern which showed
that disputed killings were not being investigated fully and
impartially". The results of any investigations that did take
place were not made public, and "because very few prosecutions
are brought, it has become impossible for the families of the
deceased to discover the full circumstances of any disputed
killing".

     The Stalker case is taken by Amnesty as an example. The
attempt to discredit him, the subsequent failure to publish
Stalker's findings and bring the recommended prosecutions show
the failure of the present system.

     Given the lack of criminal charges brought against members
of the crown forces inquests have become increasingly important
as the only other legal avenue for relatives, to discover the
circumstances of a killing. However restrictions placed upon
coroners courts in the Six Counties mean that they fail in this
and do not satisfy "the requirements of the UN principles on the
Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitary
and Summary Executions".

     Amnesty also condemned Britain's emergency legislation;
saying the violation of "the accused's right to a fair trial" and
fears about the ill-treatment of detainees are exacerbated with
the removal of the right to silence, and the denial of access to
a solicitor.

     Here once again the British government fails to comply with
international standards. Amnesty quotes the UN Rapporteur on
Torture who stated that "torture is most frequently practised
during incommunicado detention" and that "Incommunicado detention
should be made illegal".

     The report concludes saying, "Since the ceasefires were
declared there has not been any introduction of safeguards to
ensure the protection of human rights", to conform with
international standards. There have been no significant changes
in those laws which have led, and to continue to lead, to human
rights violations.

     "A lasting peace can only be maintained if it is based on
the understanding that there is a fundamental need to protect
human rights."

     In the midst of the controversy over decommissioning this
report has been largely ignored by the media but it speaks
volumes about the British government's true role in Ireland and
their lack of real engagement in the peace process.

  Amnesty International is now online via the web.  Here is the report on
  northern Ireland (010195.EUR.txt).  Draw your own conclusions.
  In addition I recommend:

           http://www.io.org/amnesty/Europe94/450194.EUR.txt
           http://www.io.org/amnesty/Europe94/450294.EUR.txt
           http://www.io.org/amnesty/Europe94/010294.EUR.txt

       

                             Mark


(Extracts from 010195.EUR.txt)

Political killings in Northern Ireland

On 1 September the Irish Republican Army (IRA) declared a cessation of its
"military operations".  On 14 October the Combined Loyalist Military Command
declared a cessation of "all operation hostilities" by the Ulster Defence
Association (UDA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Amnesty International
urged that the protection of human rights be placed centrally on the agenda in
the search for a political settlement.
    Chief Constable John Stevens submitted his report to the Royal Ulster
Constabulary (RUC) Chief Constable in February; it was forwarded to the Northern
Ireland Director of Public Prosecutions in October. He had carried out a further
investigation into alleged collusion between the security forces and Loyalist
paramilitaries, including allegations about the killing of the lawyer Patrick
Finucane in 1989 (see AI Index: EUR 01/01/94). The findings and the report of
the inquiry had not been made public by the end of December.
    Allegations about the lack of equal protection by the RUC of the Catholic
community were highlighted by the killing of Paul Thompson on 27 April. He was
shot dead by UDA gunmen who had climbed through a hole in the "peaceline fence"
in West Belfast. Eight hours earlier a resident had informed both police and
government authorities that the fence had been broken.
    The trial of two soldiers charged with the murder of Peter McBride in 1992
took place in June; no verdict had been given by the end of the year.
    The inquests into the killings of six people, shot dead in 1982 by a
special anti-terrorist squad of the RUC, were closed in September by the coroner
collected by the Stalker/Sampson inquiry was "no longer achievable". The RUC and
the government, through the issuing of Public Interest Immunity certificates,
blocked the disclosure of the report of the Stalker/Sampson inquiry to the
inquest (see previous bulletins).
    The inquest in October into the deaths of John McNeill, Edward Hale and
Peter Thompson was unable to examine the full circumstances of the killings by
undercover soldiers in 1990 because of legal and government restrictions on
inquest procedures. An Amnesty International delegate observed the proceedings.
    The European Commission of Human Rights issued its decision in March in the
case of McCann, Farrell, and Savage v. UK (the three people killed by undercover
soldiers in Gibraltar in 1988). The Commission concluded, by 11 votes to six,
that "the deprivation of life resulted from the use of force that was no more
than `absolutely necessary'", and referred the case to the European Court of
Human Rights. Amnesty International submitted written comments to the Court.
    
Fair trial concerns
 
The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act became law in November. Under it,
courts can draw adverse inferences against defendants remaining silent during
interrogation and at trial in England and Wales, similar to Northern Ireland.
The Act also gave police new powers to stop and search and created criminal
sanctions against protestors, travellers, hunt saboteurs, "ravers" and
squatters.
    In June in the Murray v. UK case the European Commission of Human Rights
concluded that the applicant's rights to a fair trial and to legal assistance
had been violated by restrictions on his access to a lawyer (suspects
interrogated under emergency legislation in Northern Ireland can have access to
their lawyers deferred and lawyers are not allowed to attend interrogations).
It rejected the argument that adverse inferences drawn against the accused for
remaining silent during interrogation and at trial violated his right to a fair
trial. The Commission referred the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
    The trial, which began in November 1993 of the "Ballymurphy Seven" charged
with a bomb attack, finished in November 1994. Four of the defendants were
acquitted during the proceedings after the judge ruled that their confessions
were inadmissible. The judgment on three defendants had not been delivered by
the end of the year. An Amnesty International delegate attended part of the
proceedings.
    Four police officers, charged with attempting to pervert the course of
justice in connection with the conviction in 1986 of four Ulster Defence
Regiment (UDR) soldiers for murder, were acquitted in September. The judge ruled
that although interview notes had been rewritten, this did not necessarily mean
any crime had been committed. Scientific tests showed that the rewritten notes
omitted the word "solicitor" which appeared three times in the original draft.
James Hegan, one of the four originally convicted of the murder, claimed that
his repeated request for a solicitor had been refused.
    In a report published in June Sir John May concluded that the wrongful
convictions of the "Guildford Four" were due to individual failings by police
officers, prosecutors and lawyers and "not due to any specific weakness or
inherent fault in the criminal justice system". The inquiry was carried out
after the "Guildford Four" were released in 1989, having served 15 years'
imprisonment.   Two senior police officers, charged in connection with the
prosecutions of the "Tottenham Three", were acquitted in July. They had been
charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice after scientific
analysis showed that interview notes had been altered (see AI Index: EUR
01/03/92).

Allegations of ill-treatment

The report of an ad-hoc visit to Northern Ireland in July 1993 of the European
Committee for the Prevention of Torture (ECPT), and the government's reply, were
published in November. The ECPT report concluded that detainees held under
emergency legislation ran a significant risk of psychological forms of ill-
treatment and on occasion, of physical ill-treatment. It emphasized the need for
the introduction of further safeguards including immediate access to a
solicitor; legal assistance during interrogation; and the possible electronic
recording of interrogations.
    In January the Independent Commissioner for the Holding Centres, Sir Louis
Blom-Cooper, published his first annual report on the police interrogation
centres in Northern Ireland. The report was critical of some conditions at
Castlereagh; it concluded that "public confidence can be secured only if there
is in place a form of surveillance over, and a method of accountability for" the
conduct of detectives carrying out interrogations. 
    In July Amnesty International published a report entitled Cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment during forcible deportation (AI Index: EUR 45/05/94)
which detailed allegations made by four deportees of ill-treatment by police
officers and private security guards. Unauthorized equipment was used to
restrain deportees, including mouth gags, adhesive tape and plastic straps. The
organization urged the government to investigate impartially the allegations
made. It also urged the government to set up an independent inquiry into the
accountability of all agencies involved in the deportation process and to create
a statutory authority to regulate the Immigration Service and private security
firms. The Prime Minister, John Major, wrote to Amnesty International in August
rejecting the need for an independent statutory authority, or an independent
inquiry.