Fears for human rights over ‘express’ tribunals plan

PLANS for quicker, less expensive forms of tribunals of inquiry may deny people the right to defend themselves, the Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) has warned.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell will publish legislation for the setting up of Commissions of Investigation before the Dáil takes its summer break. The commissions will be aimed at replacing the existing tribunals with non-statutory inquiries, requiring less time and public funding.

But Dr Maurice Manning, IHRC president, believes plans to hold such inquiries behind closed doors could raise questions over people’s right to defend themselves.

“Most people would support what the minister wants to achieve, but already major questions about the infringement of traditional human rights are arising and offer little possibility of easy resolution,” he said.

“For example, issues such as evidence being taken in private without giving parties who may be detrimentally affected by the evidence the rights to be present, to confront their accuser or to cross-examine. It also raises major issues of privilege and confidentiality,” Dr Manning said.

These concerns were raised with Mr McDowell during the drafting of the legislation, announced late last year.

A spokesperson for the minister said these submissions have been taken into account, and that the Commission of Investigations Bill will be fully debated in the Oireachtas and tested for its constitutionality.

“These inquiries will offer much quicker investigations, better value for taxpayers’ money and also make it easier to take evidence on sensitive issues, like in the case of the recent inquiry into clerical sex abuse in Ferns,” he said.

Dr Manning, a former Fine Gael TD and senator, made his comments in an address to the annual congress of the Irish Vocational Education Association. It is one of the first occasions in which the full agenda and some of the early concerns of the commission have been publicly outlined.

He also cited the detention of juveniles, the provision of proper secure facilities for disturbed young people and the protection of the rights of older people in long-term care as areas which need to be addressed.

The IHRC was set up as part of the Good Friday Agreement, but will not be fully staffed until this summer. It has powers to raise concerns about existing and proposed laws, or where the absence of legislation poses a threat to the rights of groups or individuals.

Dr Manning made it clear that the commission will have no hesitation in taking or supporting court cases in pursuit of substantive rights, such as food, clothing, housing, work, medical care, education and social services.

“I have sympathy with the minister when he says the realisation of social and economic rights should be resolved through the normal democratic process. But all too often they are not, and it is those who are particularly vulnerable who most need the reassurance,” Dr Manning said.