Devolving Power? Human Rights and State Regulation in Northern Ireland

Abstract

Britain has the dubious distinction of being the European state judged to have been the most consistent violator of human rights throughout the 1970s and 1980s. During this period the UK government ‘had more cases taken against it under the European Convention on Human Rights than any other country, and has had more adverse judgements made against it than any other country’ (Tomlinson, 1995: 455). The vast majority of the accusations, and associated rulings, have been in relation to the British state’s handling of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Concerns about human rights violations in Northern Ireland have been voiced by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UNHCHR’s Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, Human Rights Committee and Committee Against Torture^l as well as the Council of Europe’s European Committee for the Prevention of Torture.² Human rights abuses in Northern Ireland have also been the subject of criticisms from a range of international NGOs, including Amnesty International (1978), Human Rights Watch (1999b), the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (1993) and Statewatch (1999), as well as from human rights groups based in Northern Ireland.³