The Government is engaged in ongoing discussions with London about the shape and remit of the North's new Human Rights Commission, following a thinly-veiled warning by the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, that its powers must be both adequate and clearly defined.
Mrs Robinson expressed her concerns in letters to the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, on June 18th ahead of the Assembly elections and the presentation of the Northern Ireland Bill, which brings the commission and the other institutional arrangements defined by the Belfast Agreement into being.
In her letters, which The Irish Times has seen, Mrs Robinson made plain her anxiety that, as defined at present, the commission could prove inadequate for its potentially crucial role in safeguarding human rights. She specifically asked both governments to consult her about the scale of the powers necessary and their legislative definition.
Mrs Robinson's letters also gave powerful voice to the views separately pressed on the two government by a number of public bodies and from within the North's human rights lobby about the capacity of the new commission to initiate inquiries.
She said there needed to be guarantees of the commission's independence, its resources and its ability to investigate patterns of alleged abuses as well as individual cases.
Government sources have refused to comment on Mrs Robinson's intervention. But they confirmed that high-level discussions between British and Irish officials are continuing, and that these are likely to result in amendments to the Northern Ireland Bill when it goes before the House of Lords in the autumn.
The commission was originally expected to come into being next February, but there is now speculation that it could be established before the end of the year.