The Attorney General, Mr Michael McDowell, yesterday faced sustained questioning by the UN Human Rights Committee over lack of independence and investigatory powers of the Garda Complaints Board.
Describing the board's delays in processing complaints as "deeply unsatisfactory", Mr McDowell said a detailed review was under way and the Minister for Justice would shortly bring forward reform recommendations.
These might include a police ombudsman and the right to initiate investigations into systemic problems in the Garda. Mr McDowell, testifying here before the committee on Ireland's record in implementing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), was also repeatedly asked why the Government was not willing to incorporate its provisions directly into Irish law.
"I do not understand this," the Argentinian representative, Mr Hipolito Solari Yrigoyen, said. The Government had indicated it was willing to incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights, so why not the ICCPR?
Mr Christine Chanet (France) said that in leaving citizens without a means for upholding their ICCPR rights Ireland was in breach of the convention.
Mr McDowell argued that while the State had not incorporated the covenant "on a formulaic basis . . . the substance of the covenant and the obligations entered into by Ireland . . . are regarded as challenging standards by all branches of Irish Government . . . which must be vindicated and given full expression as day-to-day realities."
He was on a less sticky wicket describing progress in implementing the recommendations of the committee when it last reported in 1993. Ireland hoped to ratify the Torture Convention before the end of the year, he said, and was in the process of reviewing the future of the Special Criminal Court.
The Emergency Powers Act was no longer extant and the human rights culture in the Garda Siochana had been transformed with the upgrading of Garda training, he argued.
On freedom of expression, he said, "only hard pornography is subject to censorship. Artistic censorship is dead."
The Government would also be publishing a consultative paper on the workings of the system "in the near future", and he pointed to the court's reversal of the ban on In Dublin recently.
But Mr McDowell faced a number of questions on the continued use of the non-jury Special Criminal Court. Mr David Kreztmer (Israel) argued specifically that the use of normal courts and the Special to try different defendants in the same case violated the principle of equality of treatment.
Mr McDowell appealed for understanding. "The Irish Government is not trigger-happy or anxious to resort to extraordinary methods," he said, but had been driven by the Omagh bombing, "a colossal violation of human rights", to enact special legislation in 1998.
On prisons, Mr McDowell said a programme was under way to tackle the "19th-century" sanitation and slopping-out many prisoners still faced.
On the Garda complaints issue, Mr McDowell acknowledged that the process was so slow that the State could not initiate criminal prosecutions of gardai because of the statute of limitations.
But, he said, reform to give the board more teeth was complicated by the fact that only the courts could make findings of guilt.
Ms Elisabeth Evatt (Australia) expressed concern at the limited powers of the proposed Human Rights Commission and sought assurances on its independence. Several members also sought clarification of the rights of asylum-seekers, but the detail of the Government's report to the committee won widespread praise.
The hearing continues today.
