When the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, spoke in Belfast in December 1999, she said in respect of the Belfast Agreement that the international world was interested most in its human rights mechanisms.
This assertion confirmed that, wherever communities are in conflict, the denial of human rights is central to such conflicts and that the protection of human rights is the common language of the resolution of such conflicts.
Consequently, one immediate method of sharing the relevance of our ongoing political process is developing and sharing the human rights mechanisms of the agreement.
At the launch of the Patten Report, Chris Patten stated: "We see the upholding of the fundamental human rights as the very purpose of policing and we propose that it should be instilled in all officers from the start - in the oath they take, in their training, in their codes of practice and in their performance-appraisal system."
These four requirements are now given statutory and operational expression in the Police (NI) Act and the Policing Implementation Plan. The SDLP will be on the Policing Board to ensure the fullest working of these requirements.
Indeed, it is suggested by some that a draft of the New Police Code of Ethics, to be issued by the Policing Board, proposes to introduce into domestic police policy a range of international codes and conventions, including those on law enforcement, use of force and the protection of victims.
This approach is essential to policing in the North, with its history of partisan policing and abuse of rights. But it is not exclusive to the North.
Police officers and a police service being judged and judging itself against international human rights standards should be the touchstone against which future policing on these islands should be assessed. In doing so, confidence in policing can be strengthened and ground-breaking human rights developments on this island can establish best practice applicable across the globe, fulfilling the anticipation expressed in the comment of Mrs Robinson.
The Police Ombudsman, Ms Nuala O'Loan, argues that the police complaints systems in the North and South Africa are, to her knowledge, the most independent complaints procedures that exist anywhere.
Certainly, the vigorous and rigorous approach adopted by her office suggests that the procedures in the North have application outside the North.
This model, recently strengthened by Patten recommendations, deserves positive and prompt consideration by those who value an independent complaints system.
However, governments may not have the option of delay.
A recent European Court of Human Rights case (Shanaghan & Others v UK), which outlines the requirements for an effective and lawful investigation of a complaint against the police, requires governments to radically reconsider present complaint mechanisms.
The court stated that a complaint investigation must be prompt and reasonably expedited, must be effective, must be carried out by those who are independent of those under investigation and must have a sufficient element of public scrutiny.
Ms O'Loan stated at a recent human rights conference in Belfast that this judgment "will be the greatest challenge to most existing police complaints system in Europe."
She added: "It is my view that people have gone beyond accepting an investigation by the police of the police. Recent events in London, with the Lawrence case, and in Ireland, with the Abbeylara case, have shown that there is a demand for openness, transparency and independence in the investigation of allegations of misconduct by the police. I believe that this can only lead to an enhanced police service."
The SDLP agrees strongly. The European Court judgment needs careful consideration. An opportunity exist to advance confidence in policing, to advance the protection of human rights and to develop a model of best practice applicable across the globe. And here also fulfil the anticipation in the words of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
An All-Island Charter of Rights to give added recognition that human rights is a fulcrum around which democratic society should operate, human rights commissions have been established in both parts of Ireland.
Subject to the adequacy of the powers and resources of the two commissions, the rights of the citizens and communities for this island can be further advanced.
The SDLP has met both commissions recently and argued that the Commissions should quickly establish a joint committee and develop proposals for an all-Ireland charter of rights.
These requirements are given explicit approval in the Belfast Agreement, which states: "It is envisaged that there would be a joint committee of the commissions ... (which) will consider the possibility of establishing a charter ... reflecting and endorsing agreed measures for the protection of the fundamental rights of everyone living on the island".
The current proposals for a Bill of Rights in the North, the incorporation of the European Convention of Human Rights in national law and a charter of rights on the island are but three opportunities for Ireland to be a world leader on the protection of the rights of our citizens and our communities. We should take the chance to lead.
In this context, it is worth recalling that on the last day of the deliberations of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation in February 1996, a sub-committee of the forum was considering proposals for the protection of community or collective rights, with the potential of breaking new ground here is an internationally underdeveloped aspect of human rights protection. It is time to revisit all of that.
Very few generations are invited to reshape their society. There is no better opportunity for this generation to do so by the fullest and broadest protection and enforcement of human rights.
The mechanisms to do so are available. With dedicated resources and determined will it can be achieved, consolidating and confirming the new political and policing order envisaged by the Belfast Agreement and in ways with relevance and application across the globe.
What can Ireland do? It is believed by many that how we protect the rights of our citizens and our communities offers the best opportunity to share the lessons of resolving our conflict with a world struggling to resolvinge its conflicts.
With events in Afghanistan and with Ireland chairing the United Nations UN Security Council, this opportunity is both urgent and current.
Alex Attwood is chairman of the Social Democratic and Labour Party