APPENDIX 6
Memorandum submitted by the Northern Ireland
Human Rights Commission
1. The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission
(NIHRC) welcomes the inquiry being conducted by the Northern Ireland
Affairs Committee into the practice of paramilitary organisations
intimidating residents into relocating within, or leaving, Northern
Ireland.
2. Since it was established in March 1999,
the NIHRC has not been approached by anyone claiming to be a recent
victim of this kind of intimidation. We have, however, been approached
by a small number of individuals who have complained to us that
they were forced to leave their homes many years ago because of
paramilitary threats. They have asked us about the chances of
getting enhanced compensation for the disruption and fear they
suffered at the time. We have advised them as best we can, although
in every instance we have had to conclude that the chances of
mounting a successful legal challenge to the amount of compensation
paid, given the lapse of time since the incident, are very small.
3. The NIHRC wishes to place on record its
abhorrence of intimidation. It sees the practice as one which,
if unaddressed, can lead to an abuse of the victim's right to
life, the right not to be cruelly or inhumanly treated, the right
to security of the person, the right to respect for one's private
and family life, the right to freedom of association with others
and the right not to be discriminated against on grounds such
as religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin,
or association with a national minority. These are all rights
which are conferred by the European Convention on Human Rights,
which is now part of the law of Northern Ireland as a result of
the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and the Human Rights Act 1998.
4. The people who perpetrate intimidation
must first and foremost be held responsible for their actions.
It is vital to the interests of victims that they are brought
before the courts through the proper legal procedures and dealt
with in accordance with the rule of law. Society's recognition
of this is reflected in the provisions of the criminal and civil
law. At the moment, under the legal system of Northern Ireland
(as in England and Wales), victims of intimidation cannot take
private individuals or purely private organisations to the courts
specifically for breaching their human rights: the individuals
or organisations can only be prosecuted by the state under the
criminal law or sued by the victims for assault and/or battery
under the civil law.
5. There is a related duty on the State
to ensure that its laws do adequately protect people against such
intimidation. The NIHRC believes that the provisions of the criminal
and civil law are adequate in this regard but appreciates that
there are often difficulties in detecting the persons responsible
for incidents of intimidation. If it could be shown, for example,
that the State's organs had a policy not to investigate reports
of intimidation, or not to prosecute persons suspected of the
practice, this would be a clear breach, by the state, of its duty
to protect the right to life and security etc under the European
Convention. Similarly, if the state had a policy not to assist
the victims of such intimidation (by, for example, refusing them
emergency housing) this too could well be a breach of the State's
obligation to protect people against cruel treatment or against
interference with their private life.
6. The State should also ensure that there
are appropriate schemes in place to protect victims who give evidence
in criminal trials. Such victims are often in a much more vulnerable
position than witnesses in criminal trials. The NIHRC has not
yet been able to carry out an assessment of the government's plans
to enhance the protection available for victims and witnesses
in Northern Ireland, but it is clear that unless good schemes
are in place, the chances of securing convictions in many of these
cases of intimidation are very slight.
7. According to section 75 of the Northern
Ireland Act 1998, most public authorities in Northern Ireland,
including (soon) the police, have a duty to adopt policies which
do not impact adversely from an equality of opportunity point
of view—unless for objectively justifiable reasons—on
any of nine different groups within society, such as gender groups,
religious groups, political groups and racial groups. Public authorities
also have a duty to promote good relations between different religious,
political and racial groups. The NIHRC does not know whether the
Equality Commission for Northern Ireland is taking any steps to
ensure that in their approach to the problem of paramilitary intimidation,
public authorities are adhering to these duties. Nor have we ourselves
yet been able to verify that the Northern Ireland Housing Executive,
for example, is promoting the concept of integrated housing estates
in fulfilment of its duty to promote good relations.
8. The NIHRC is aware of the fact that intimidation
is often also a discrimination issue. In many instances persons
who are intimidated constitute a minority in the area where they
live, because of their religious belief, their political opinion,
the type of work they undertake (eg work related to the security
forces) or their sexual orientation. Another form of discrimination
takes place when those suspected of, or with prior convictions
for, sexual abuse are intimidated: the basic right to equal protection
of the law should not be affected by such suspicions or by such
a past. The NIHRC also believes it is important for the Northern
Ireland Affairs Committee to consider the possibility that there
is a gender dimension to intimidation. Anecdotal evidence would
suggest that often single mothers in publicly owned houses are
more likely to live in areas where they constitute a political
or religious minority, and while they may be perceived as posing
no threat at most times, they become particularly vulnerable at
times of high political tension. Furthermore, domestic violence
is itself a form of intimidation, and often persists even after
the woman has left the family home.
9. We are aware, that in Great Britain,
the Commission for Racial Equality has recently taken steps to
investigate whether local authorities are doing all they can to
protect people against racial harassment, and there are many similar
efforts to improve the measures being taken against domestic violence
throughout the United Kingdom. More particularly, we know that
the CRE has considered that simply moving the "victim"
of intimidation may be to disadvantage even further the victim,
and while such a move may provide a short term solution to the
issue of physical safety, it does not amount to providing equality
for intimidated persons. Moreover, where the victim is a person
of different religious or political belief from those in the neighbourhood,
moving him or her out of an area could contribute in Northern
Ireland to the well-commented increasing segregation of society.
A commitment to the duty to promote good relations would again
suggest that other options should be fully examined, difficult
though the issue is. We have a limited awareness that schemes
exist in England and Wales whereby local councils take steps to
move not the intimidated persons but the intimidating persons.
It may be that lessons can be learned from these schemes for the
efforts being made to counter paramilitary intimidation in Northern
Ireland.
10. The NIHRC has not to date conducted
any research into the extent of paramilitary intimidation of the
kind being investigated in this inquiry. Nor has it compiled information
on the steps being taken by Government and law enforcement agencies
to eliminate the activity or the measures adopted by Government
and public bodies to assist the victims of such intimidation.
We have, however, met twice with representatives of the Maranatha
Community to learn more about the problems faced by "exiles"
and to inform ourselves about the work being done to help them.
It seems that under the powers conferred upon the NIHRC by the
Northern Ireland Act, we do not have any authority to grant practical
assistance to individual victims of intimidation other than through
assisting them with particular court proceedings they may wish
to take. To date, no such victim, and no representative of such
a victim, has approached the Commission for such assistance.
11. The NIHRC is conducting research into
the needs of victims of violence in general in Northern Ireland
and is giving serious consideration to including provisions on
victims' rights in its advice to the Secretary of State on what
should be contained in a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.
We expect the report on victims' needs to be completed by April
2001 and our draft advice to the Secretary of State to be submitted
in May 2001. On 15 January 2001 we published the conclusions of
a working group we established on victims' rights as part of our
consultation on a Bill of Rights. [1]A
person who works for Base 2 in Belfast was invited to be a member
of that working group but in the end was unable to attend many
of its meetings.
January 2001
1 See the List of Unprinted Papers, p. vi. Back
|
