SDLP, SF unhappy with rights commission approach

The SDLP and Sinn Féin have expressed disappointment with the North's Human Rights Commission over its attitude to the controversy surrounding its chairman, Brice Dickson.

Both parties met the commission yesterday to discuss their concerns about Mr Dickson, but said they were not satisfied with the answers given to the questions they raised.

Mr Dickson is under pressure to resign following revelations that he wrote to former RUC chief constable Ronnie Flanagan saying he disagreed with a case against the police which the commission was funding.

The legal action was taken by a parent of a pupil at the Holy Cross Catholic school in north Belfast, who claimed the police failed to uphold her daughter's human rights during the loyalist protest at the school two years ago.

Mr Dickson had told Mr Flanagan that he did not believe the police had failed to uphold the girl's right to attend school in safety.