Patrick Corrigan's blog

It's not a great time to be a politician (although, of course, there are compensations). The daily (Telegraph) revelations of politicians 'fiddling' while the economy burns have left people feeling understandably angry.

Questions are now being asked of how representative MPs and other elected politicians truly are, when they lead such cushioned lifestyles that they can claim as work expenses everything from designer interior decorating to moat cleaning. Do some of these people really share the concerns and priorities of their voters who can't rely on the taxpayer to meet their next mortgage payment?

As the Irish Times reports, a new opinion poll out today shows that some 70% of people in Northern Ireland back a Bill of Rights and think it very or quite important for their future. Over 90% want to see a Bill contain social and economic rights offering basic standard protections for healthcare, housing and education.

Cross-posted from Belfast and Beyond

Patrick Corrigan (Belfast, Amnesty NI): Ten years on from the landmark Patten report on policing in Northern Ireland, authored by former Conservative minister and Hong Kong governor general Chris Patten, this Saturday the SDLP are to stage a half-day conference on "policing and it's oversight at times of threat".

The event could hardly be more timely, coming as it does in the week that:

- the extended detention (under the Terrorism Act 2006) of six terrorist suspects by the PSNI was overturned by Lord Chief Justice Sir Brian Kerr;

- complaints were aired by the NI Human Rights Commission about the conditions for detention at Antrim PSNI station where the murder suspects were being held;

Patrick Corrigan (Amnesty Blogs: Belfast and Beyond): Slugger O'Toole is the daddy of the Northern Irish blogosphere. Founded and run by the inestimable Mick Fealty as a uniquely popular, cross-community blog for debate and discussion of NI politics and life, it is always worth a visit. 

Politics in Northern Ireland is generally a bearpit and, while Slugger's comment zone sometimes dips to sectarian whataboutery, its lead bloggers are an eclectic and generally high-quality bunch of pundits from across the spectrum. Mick's 'ball not man' rule generally suffices to keep order. Maybe it could be extended to the NI Assembly.

Patrick Corrigan (Belfast, Amnesty NI): Since World War II, this country and the world has built up a system of protections for all our rights. From the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 to the Human Rights Act of 1998, we saw five decades of progress in the creation of a set of legal defences which give enforcement to the aspiration that all human beings are born equal. 

Yet, in the seven years since September 11 2001, we have seen these same rights under assault by those who think the pendulum has swung too far in favour of the individual against the state. Whether detention without trial and the use of torture internationally, or the rise of stop and search powers and the introduction of an ID register nationally, the clear direction of travel has been away from this tradition of advancing the rule of law as a bulwark, in defence of individual freedoms.

Here's Helena Kennedy QC talking eloquently about these challenges.

Patrick Corrigan, (Amnesty Blogs: Belfast and Beyond): Having just attended my boys' nativity plays (well done everyone at All Children's Primary in Newcastle, Co Down!) my mind wanders to the series of flagrant human rights abuses related in the biblical tale and how they might be experienced in the present day…

First off, Joseph and Mary's right to marry and found a family life, as articulated in Article 23 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, has arguably been hindered by the forced relocation to Bethlehem for a census ordered by the Executive power, King Herod.

Patrick Corrigan, (Amnesty Blogs: Belfast and Beyond): Today is international Human Rights Day and, ten years after the Multi-Party (Belfast/Good Friday) Agreement, we will finally see the advice on the shape and content of a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland handed over by the NI Human Rights Commission to the Secretary of State, Northern Ireland Office Minister Paul Goggins.

I’ll be in Castle Buildings at Stormont (venue for the negotiations which led to the historic Agreement) this afternoon for the official handover. Even before this event, there is already news that the two Commissioners (out of ten) with connections to Northern Ireland’s main unionist parties, are withholding their support for the otherwise agreed advice.

Patrick Corrigan, (Amnesty Blogs: Belfast and Beyond): The number of rapes being reported in Northern Ireland has increased by 50% in the past six years, according to official figures. More than 450 rapes or attempted rapes were reported last year – more than one every day.

Patrick Corrigan, (Amnesty Blogs: Belfast and Beyond): A Northern Ireland Truth Commission moved a step closer to reality on Thursday with the call by Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams for such a body to be established to deal with the legacy of the thirty-year conflict.

His endorsement of the idea and call for it be helped by "all relevant parties", suggests that the IRA, which was responsible for over 1,700 deaths – nearly half of the overall death toll from the conflict – could be ready to participate in a truth recovery process.

Patrick Corrigan, (Amnesty Blogs: Belfast and Beyond): As previewed on Belfast and Beyond (Tasers: shocks and secrets) some weeks ago, a Belfast child has applied for and yesterday won the right to challenge the PSNI's decision to start using Tasers.

If successful, the child's court challenge could have UK-wide implications for police use of the 50,000-volt device.

Patrick Corrigan, (Amnesty Blogs: Belfast and Beyond): At the risk of coming across as Forrest Gump with bad timing (see my recent Belfast and Beyond post: ('One night (not) in Bangkok'), last Tuesday I sort of stumbled across the Belfast end of an international arms bust.

As I passed the Europa Hotel, I noticed a squad of heavily armed police moving in on the hotel entrance, shouting instructions and organising vehicles. Inside they were arresting a Dublin man as part of an international police operation which also led to arrests and weapons seizures in Amsterdam, Zaandam and Dublin.

Patrick Corrigan, (Amnesty Blogs: Belfast and Beyond): Looks like the Observer's Henry McDonald has been hearing the same rumours around Belfast as I have – namely, that the report by the Eames-Bradley Consultative Group on the Past is to be postponed (yet again) until the end of the year at least.

The Group concluded its investigation as long ago as January. When I last blogged this topic in late May (Northern Ireland: 'It must never happen again'), at the time of a high-profile speech by the Group's chairs Archbishop Robin Eames and Denis Bradley, I mentioned that the report was expected later in the summer. Then, it was said, it would be out in September. Then October. Now McDonald is reporting December, while I am hearing that we could be into next year before the Group's findings finally become public.

Patrick Corrigan, (Amnesty Blogs: Belfast and Beyond): There were more politicians at Saturday's Belfast Pride parade than you could shake a stick at. Or at least an Amnesty placard which, once again, was the hottest item in town.

In the wake of the now infamous series of anti-gay comments made by DUP MP Iris Robinson – not to mention the huge response of the LGBT community and their supporters – Northern Irish politicians of every party (except the DUP, of course) were out in force to prove their gay-friendly credentials.

Patrick Corrigan, (Amnesty Blogs: Belfast and Beyond): Will Northern Ireland's (non-DUP) Lords help restore Northern Ireland's Westminster reputation when the Government's counter-terrorism Bill comes to the upper house tomorrow? When the government won the vote at the Bill's first reading in the Commons by just nine votes, the chamber rang with jeers and furious cries of 'shame' directed at the DUP MPs who had just voted with Brown after an eleventh hour private meeting with the PM.

Patrick Corrigan, (Amnesty Blogs: Belfast and Beyond): While Northern Ireland's Consultative Group on the Past won’t be publishing their report till the summer, yesterday it’s co-chairs, Archbishop Robin Eames and Denis Bradley, set out to trail their findings with a joint keynote speech in Belfast.

Given that part of their role is to consider if and how Northern Ireland might go about establishing a suitable truth recovery process, it is perhaps fitting that they have started their own ‘harsh truth confrontation process’.

They presented a mini-narrative of the last forty years and, as analysed by Brian Rowan in the Belfast Telegraph, set out an "assessment of what is possible and what is not".

In any attempt to deal with the legacy of a conflict, there are at least four – sometimes competing – personal and/or societal objectives: truth, justice, reconciliation and peace.