NIHRC calls for government action on human rights

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) has called on the government to upgrade its adherence to international human rights treaties.

The call by the Commission, which comes on International Human Rights Day, aims to address a number of issues including asylum-seekers being detained in local prisons alongside notable paramilitary leaders.

NI HRC Chief Brice Dickson said: “The Commission's Mission Statement commits it to measuring law, policy and practice in Northern Ireland against internationally accepted rules and principles for the protection of human rights.

"The Commission is of the view that the UK's failure to ratify and implement the international documents listed above means that the government is falling below best practice and risking the violation of a range of basic fundamental entitlements.

"It will be pressing the government to provide clear justifications for its refusal to be bound by these international standards to date.”

In particular the Commission wishes the government to ratify:

• the Revised European Social Charter - this document, drawn up in 1996, seeks to ensure that a range of social and economic rights are firmly protected throughout the 44 states of the Council of Europe
• Protocols 4, 7 and 12 to the European Convention on Human Rights - these documents protect, amongst other things, the right to freedom of movement, the right not to expelled from one's own country, the rights of foreigners, the right of appeal in criminal cases, the right to compensation for wrongful conviction, equality between spouses and the right not to be discriminated against
• the UN Convention on the Protection of Migrant Workers and the Members of their Families - this treaty would ensure that the hundreds of migrant workers in Northern Ireland receive a better deal as regards employment rights and health care rights.

Mr Dickson confirmed that the Commission would be writing to the government to address the asylum-seekers issue as well as the slow progress in developing a National Action Plan Against Racism.

(MB)