Panel to assess North's counter-terrorism measures

A panel of international jurists was in Belfast today as part of a global inquiry into counter-terrorism laws.

The Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists [ICJ] set up the independent panel to study the implications and justifications of counter-terrorism measures.

The North was selected for study to assess the success of measures taken in the past to combat terrorist violence, said the group, whose visit was being hosted by the Committee on the Administration of Justice.

During three days in the North, the jurists were meeting politicians, lawyers and legal academics, human rights activists, the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Court Service, Judiciary and Public Prosecution Service.

The panel is being chaired by Justice Arthur Chaskalson, former Chief Justice of South Africa and the first president of South Africa’s Constitutional Court.

The visit is one of a number by the panel this year to all regions of the world “to gather information on the legal and policy responses adopted or likely to be adopted in response to conflict and their impact on human rights”, said the ICJ.

Northern Ireland had been selected to provide data on the measures that were taken in the past and their success or otherwise in ending political violence and in ensuring human rights protection, it added.

Mr Chaskalson was being accompanied by panel member Justice Raul Zaffaroni of the Argentinian Supreme Court at a public meeting to which local political parties, including the Ulster Unionists, SDLP and Sinn Féin were expected to make submissions tonight.

Sinn Féin North Antrim MLA Philip McGuigan said he would be telling the panel that both the British and Irish governments had – and continued to use - methods, laws and policies that undermined international human rights standards.

Mr McGuigan said: “It is clear that across the island both the British and Irish governments have operated a framework of repressive measures that have undermined human rights.

“Both governments, but principally the British government, have introduced policies and legislation which breach international human rights standards and undermine democracy.”