Sir, - The Patten Report defined policing as "protecting human rights". Patten believed that "the fundamental purpose of policing should be, in the words of the Good Friday Agreement, the protection and vindication of the human rights of all." It is surprising, therefore, that Sir Ivor Roberts, British Ambassador to Ireland, defending what he describes as the British government's faithful implementation of Patten in his Irish Times article of July 29th, did not mention human rights once. Like a good diplomat, his attitude simply mirrors that of his government. Throughout the debates on the Police (NI) Bill the British government has stubbornly resisted all amendments seeking to include references to international human rights standards in the Bill.
Patten placed a strong emphasis on human rights throughout his recommendations. For the Police Bill to faithfully reflect Patten, it needs this same emphasis. As it stands after the Second Reading in the House of Lords, it patently does not. Beyond the references to the Human Rights Act, which incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights into British law and will consequently be binding on all UK police services, the Bill contains no reference whatsoever to other international standards. The resistance of the British government to including references to international human rights standards in the Bill is accompanied by a refusal to acknowledge that the RUC was responsible for human rights abuses.
George Howarth MP, the Minister with responsibility for human rights, said: "The RUC carried out a difficult job, often in impossible circumstances . . . we might reasonably say that, against the norms in question, the RUC has a good record on human rights."
This attitude, ignoring extensive international human rights criticism of the RUC, may well explain the reluctance of the British government to properly equip the new accountability mechanisms with the powers to effectively hold the new or old police services to account. The Bill, as it now stands, will not allow the Policing Board to hold inquiries into past events such as the Stalker inquiry, collusion, allegations of ill-treatment or the intimidation of defence lawyers. It will also place undue restrictions on the power of the board to establish inquiries into future policing problems. As with much of the Bill, such restrictions were not envisaged by Patten.
The focus of the Police Bill needs to change from protecting those at the heart of the policing establishment in Northern Ireland to protecting human rights. - Yours, etc.,
Paul Mageean, Legal Officer, Committee on the Administration of Justice, Donegall Street, Belfast 1.