This is a critical moment for human rights in Ireland - both North and South.
This weekend in Dublin Castle, the quest to fulfil the human rights promise contained in the Good Friday agreement will take centre stage. Leaders of civil society from both jurisdictions will sit down with the directors of the new human rights institutions created through the peace process. On their schedule will be the next steps to set a practical human rights agenda.
This North-South dialogue is vitally important: the Good Friday agreement provided a catalyst for progress on human rights and it is now time to take stock of how far we have come. The agreement envisaged a thorough transformation in both the North and the South: it called for the creation of independent human rights commissions and comparable human rights protections in both jurisdictions and envisaged real co-operation on these issues.
We have already seen some progress in a number of areas. The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission was created in March 1999. Its chief commissioner is Brice Dickson, a prominent and respected human rights leader, and the commission includes a number of other individuals with proven human rights and equality commitments. The commission has demonstrated its intention to address human rights both individually and through the creation of a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.
While the establishment of the commission in the North is promising, more progress must also be made in the South. It is crucially important that commissioners appointed in the South have real expertise and a demonstrated commitment to human rights and equality. Only then can the two bodies begin to develop best practices for all of Ireland.
Another key area is the transformation of policing in the North. The Patten Commission's mandate was as ambitious as it was critically important to Northern Ireland's future. Its report provided a clear road map for building an effective and publicly supported police force.
The parliamentary process of translating Patten's proposals into law was disappointing in that it has required a massive effort to ensure that the law even approximated to the commission's original recommendations. Indeed, the process has called into question the British government's commitment to real change. International observers will be closely watching the government's next steps to translate the plan into action.
We will seek to guarantee that the human rights vision at the core of Patten is not further diluted.
The United Kingdom government's response to the Patten Commission report does not augur well for the Criminal Justice Review, which was also established under the Good Friday agreement.
The government body created to review and report on criminal justice in Northern Ireland published its report in March 2000. Placing human rights at the centre of its proposals, the report makes international human rights standards the benchmarks by which recommendations for change should be measured.
This is a welcome and important achievement, but it must be matched by real steps to transform the criminal justice system on the ground in Northern Ireland.
In the area of equality, the creation of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland in October 1999 is an important milestone.
AS Ireland progresses toward full implementation of the Good Friday agreement, the international community will continue to insist that basic international notions of human rights and social justice be given priority.
Ideally, the best practices developed North and South will be derived from these international human rights standards and from real North-South collaboration. The creation of a human rights culture is an essential ingredient of lasting peace and stability.
Real change will require that all major public issues - from policing and security to employment and education - be examined from a human rights perspective. It means that the past must be addressed with honesty, including sensitive cases, such as those of human rights lawyers Patrick Finucane and Rosemary Nelson, where questions of police collusion and failure to protect must be opened to full inquiry.
It is only by working together in transparency and the spirit of co-operation that the human rights of all in Ireland will become a reality.
Michael Posner is visiting lecturer at Columbia University Law School and executive director of the New York-based lobbying group, Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights. It may be contacted at 001-212-845 5200