Complaints to Human Rights Commission double in year

The number of complaints to the North's Human Rights Commission almost doubled in the last year, it emerged today.

The plight of residents in Killyleagh forced to live beside a 45-foot developers’ wall was among causes championed by the commission, which dealt with 920 pleas for help.

Commissioners also criticised the British government’s alleged erosion of civil liberties during their annual report for 2005/2006, which was published today.

The document said: “A remarkable feature of the year was a sharp increase in the number of new inquiries or complaints presented to the commission.

“In the past years, this had fluctuated at around four to five hundred. The total for 2005/06 reached 920, which may reflect the increased volume of media coverage attending the changes in commission membership.”

Chief Commissioner Brice Dickson stood down last year and was replaced by Monica McWilliams.

Seven more new commissioners were also appointed.

Ms McWilliams has lobbied for better conditions for immigration detainees, who are being transported from the North to Dungavel Detention Centre in Scotland.

Commission chief executive Paddy Sloan said it had been a positive year for the body.

“The absence of a devolved administration, the continued and disturbing erosion of civil liberties through increasingly restrictive counter-terrorism measures, the lack of progress in securing enhanced powers for the commission and the ongoing challenge of re-energising the debate on a bill of rights have required commissioners to become familiar very quickly with a broad range of complex issues,” she said.

The British government has sought to increase the number of days for which terror suspects can be held without charge, although officials have also outlined plans to end the North’s Diplock court system of trying suspects without a jury except in exceptional cases.

On Monday the first meeting of the new Bill of Rights Forum was held in Belfast, involving representatives from politics and civic society.

Northern Ireland Office minister David Hanson chaired the gathering of the body, which will make recommendations to the Human Rights Commission on what shape a bill of rights should take.

The British government recently announced fresh powers for the commission, allowing it unrestricted access to detention centres as well as the authority to launch legal cases involving the Human Rights Act.

Homeowners in Killyleagh contacted the commission last year after a developer put up a 45-foot wall overshadowing residents. They had been battling the plans since 2003.

He was ordered to take it down by the department of the environment after sustained pressure from local representatives.