Human Rights in Ireland

Balthazar Garzon, the Spanish judge who served on Spain’s central criminal court and the  Juzgado Central de Instrucción No. 5, which investigates the most important criminal cases in Spain, including terrorism, organised crime and money laundering, yesterday went on trial over accusations that he had abused his powers to investigate atrocities committed during the Spanish Civil War. (For a brief bio of Garzon, see here, for coverage of the case see here, here and here). Garzon will be familiar to many for his role in ordering the extradition of Chile’s former dictator Augusto Pinochet from Britain to face charges of human rights abuses. He has also pursued members of the former dictatorship in Argentina, indicted Osama bin Laden and probed abuses at the US prison for terrorism suspects at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. Domestically, he spearheaded Spain’s fight against political corruption and against terrorism by ETA. Read Full Post »

Developments in recent weeks once more highlight the under-appreciated complexity of the relationship between human rights organisations, democratising regimes and processes of international accountability. On Monday last, Egyptian civil rights lawyers demanded the death penalty for former President Hosni Mubarak on Monday, joining prosecutor’s calls for him to be executed. On the other hand, a coalitions of international NGOs (the Open Society Justice Initiative, International Commission of Jurists, Lawyers without Borders, Canada, the International Center for Transitional Justice) attempted to stimulate a reluctant Haitian government in Port-au-Prince to prosecute its former dictator, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier for crimes against humanity through an amicus curiae brief to the national prosecutor laying out the basis for prosecution under international law, arguing that the case is not covered by a local statute of limitations. Read Full Post »

“The gravity of this case is in my view of a different order from, for example, a murder committed by one individual upon another as a result of some sudden quarrel. There was a degree of general premeditation; it was a racist crime driven by hatred; it involved a gang of like-minded attackers; a lethal weapon was employed and known in advance to be carried; the victim was completely blameless and helpless. The high level of public interest in this case is at least in part a reflection of the abhorrence felt by right-thinking people at the nature of this crime. This, too, should be reflected in the sentence.”

Thus Mr Justice Treacy summarised the thinking behind his imposition of Detention at Her Majesty’s Pleasure upon Gary Dobson and David Norris – who were yesterday convicted of the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993. The sentence is the juvenile equivalent of a life sentence and the two will now be imprisoned, or on release on license, for the remainder of their lives. Dobson will serve a minimum term of 15 years and 2 months, while Norris, the younger of the two, will serve a minimum term of 14 years and 3 months. These terms take into account the fact that the offence was motivated by racial hatred, but also that it was committed by a group of men who were juveniles at the time.

On January 19 next Martin Scheinin, former UN Special Rapporteur for the Protection of Human Rights in the Pursuit of Counter-Terrorism and Professor of International Law at the European University Institute will give a lecture entitled “UN Security Council Terrorist Listing and Judicial Review: The Current State of Play”. The lecture, hosted by the Centre of European Law at King’s College London, will be chaired by David Anderson Q.C. of Brick Court Chambers. Anderson is the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation and Visiting Professor at King’s College London. The event promises to explore some of the difficult issues surrounding asset-freezing at UN and EU level. The lecture will be hosted at Parliament Chamber at Inner Temple. It is open to the public but registration is required. To register, see the CEL website.

Gary Dobson & David Norris have been found guilty of the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993. The Lawrence murder and the failure of the Metropolitan Police Service in dealing with it prompted a damning report from Lord Macpherson following an Inquiry that concluded in 1999. The report famously described the Metropolitan Police Service as ‘institutionally racist’ – though the precise meaning of that term, and its application to the MPS, was contested after publication. The identity of those suspected of Lawrence’s killing was controversially revealed by the Daily Mail in February 1997 when it emblazoned its front page with the headline ‘MURDERERS’ and pictures and names of five men. The paper challenged the five men, of whom Dobson & Norris were two, to sue if the accusation was false. No suit was brought. An initial attempt at a private prosecution by the Lawrence family had resulted in an acquittal for lack of evidence. However, the availability of new evidence – based on hair and DNA samples found on the suspect’s jacket, resulted in the Crown Prosecution Service pursuing the case once more. The retrial follows a change to the UK law on double jeopardy that was introduced by the Criminal Justice Act in 2003. Joshua Rozenberg discusses the change and its effect on the Lawrence case over at the Guardian Law. A timeline of the case is also available. Dobson & Norris will be sentenced tomorrow.

One could be forgiven, amidst the furore over the European Court of Human Rights’ Al-Khawaja judgment last Thursday, for missing the first report of the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation on the operation of the Terrorist Asset-Freezing etc Act 2010. The Report runs to over 100 pages and is the most comprehensive account of UK terrorist asset freezing in print. It is the third report of the current Independent Reviewer, David Anderson Q.C., since he took up the post in February. Asset freezing is something of a speciality of his, as he has appeared in litigation in both EU and UK courts on the matter. It is therefore unsurprising that the Report exhibits the same attention to detail that made Anderson’s previous two efforts essential reading. Read Full Post »

Following tonight’s successful performance of Whoop it up for Liberty! in Druid Theatre, Galway we would like to share the texts from which extracts were chosen and included in the performance. This link will bring you to a google document which contains the original, full extracts, which have been modified for use in tonight’s performance. It also links the documents to their original source, if available online, and, where relevant, contains links to the images which we feel connect with the pieces chosen for the performance. Thanks again to everyone for supporting this project – we hope we have made a contribution to the open democratic arts, and to exploring further some aspects of Ireland’s human rights history. The performance has been recorded, and we hope to share some clips from the recording with you in the near future.

Many thanks to everyone who supported our funding efforts for Whoop it up for Liberty! Thanks to your support, we reached our funding target and are well on our way to producing this exciting performance in Druid Theatre, Galway on 10 December. Rehearsals are gearing up, and we have an amazing mix of people with personal experience of rights-violations, professional actors, and community activists involved in the performance.

We released many of the tickets for this event to those who donated to the project on Fund It, however, there are still a limited number of tickets available to anyone who would like to attend the performance in Galway on 10 December. The venue is fully accessible, and there will be a hearing loop provided at the performance. We are currently looking into providing other accessibility features, and would like for anyone who is interested in attending to let us know what their requirements are, and we will do our best to ensure that the performance is inclusive and accessible to all, within the constraints of our budget.

To reserve your ticket for the performance, contact Liam Thornton, and if you have specific accessibility requirements, you can contact me. We will be recording the performance on the night and will hope to make the recording available online afterwards – and will also publish the script of the performance on the blog after the performance.

One of the most cutting criticisms of the International Criminal Court is that of imperialism, best captured in the cries that it is “A European Court for Africans.” This reproach is not always disinterested of course – the revival of anti-colonial language at the time of the Bashir indictment would have been more convincing was it not accompanied by Sudanese stonewalling over the Darfur atrocities. However, the Court makes the argument for globalised justice for itself when it attempts to dictate the course of bona fide national processes of criminal accountability. The prime example is its statement on the arrest of Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, against whom warrants of arrest were issued by the Court in connection with the Libya situation by the President of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Ambassador Christian Wenaweser. He began in an unobjectionable manner, stating that “by arresting Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi the Libyan authorities have taken a major step towards ensuring accountability and due process rights and towards fulfilling their obligations under international law”, before commending Libyan authorities for their cooperation with the Court to date. He reminded his audience that under the Rome Statute, Libya retained primary jurisdiction over all crimes committed on its territory, but went on to say that “it must be ensured that Saif Al-Islam is tried in a court of law and in accordance with international standards. Should the Libyan authorities wish to try him in Libya, they can make the case before the Court that their national judicial system is willing and able to do so in an independent and impartial manner”. Philippe Sands in today’s Guardian argues that the new Libyan government is “bound by a legal framework: it cannot lawfully ignore the ICC judges and decide that Saif will be tried under local law. Unlike Iraq, where there was no international indictment of Saddam, the decision on Saif is not an exclusively Libyan affair. Read Full Post »

On Friday November 18th the First Irish Penology Symposium will be hosted by the Law Faculty at Griffith College Cork. The event, organised by Clíodhna Dineen, GCC & Dr. Liam Leonard, IT Sligo, will take place in the Sullivan’s Quay campus and will run from 9am to 5pm.

The keynote speaker is Dr. Ciarán McCullagh, Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Sociology, UCC who will discuss “Prisons and the Failure to Reform”.

For further information click here.