Gardaí ‘may have broken law on May Day’

GARDAÍ may have breached human rights law in their handling of the May Day protests at the Phoenix Park in Dublin, a rights group said yesterday.

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) cited possible contraventions of eight articles of the European Convention of Human Rights - which was incorporated into Irish law this year.

They have written to Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy seeking a response to their concerns after which they will send a file to the Human Rights Commission.

“From the information available to us we are concerned that there may have been breaches of articles under the European Convention of Human Rights Act,” said ICCL director Aisling Reidy.

She said under Article 3 (prohibition on inhuman and degrading treatment) authorities must conduct an inquiry where force has been used to ensure that it was “correct and appropriate”. Ms Reidy said no such review had been conducted.

“There is the worrying fact that although the riot police had numbers, the fact that they were on the back of the helmets and therefore out of view of observers, defeats the purpose.”

“There is also the possibility (yet to be determined) that some of the injuries sustained on the day were a result of unjustified use of force,” she said.

Regarding Article 5 (right to liberty), she said there were “cumulative reports of widespread use of stop and search powers” and that these powers may not have been used in the circumstances for which they were intended.

On Article 5 and 14 (discrimination), she said non-nationals were “clearly targeted” by being stopped, searched, asked for identification and detained for periods while passports were checked.

She said the use of these powers did not seem to have been proportionate.

Referring to Articles 10 and 11 (freedom of expression and assembly), Ms Reidy said restrictions on demonstrations had to be in accordance with law “so that people understand how and why their rights are being restricted and how they can modify their behaviour to comply”.

She said there were questions over whether policing was heavy-handed and disproportionate to security needs.

Referring to Article 13 (effective remedy), Ms Reidy said in the absence of an independent garda complaints body there was no effective remedy against the police. She said ICCL would send their file to the Human Rights Commission next Friday.