Building a Human Rights Culture in a Political Democracy: The role of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission
by Colin Harvey
The process of drafting a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland will be instructive. After years when Northern Ireland was known mainly for the bad aspects of human rights abuse it may now attempt to lead the way in the UK on human rights protection. There are difficult issues of principle and practice to be addressed. As I argue, the Commission has an important role in enriching political democracy. The issue now is to what extent a Bill of Rights can make a real contribution in this regard also.
1 See CAJ Making a Bill of Rights Stick: Options for Implementation in Northern Ireland (September 1997); CAJ Making Rights Count (October 1990). The CAJ has also published its own Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.
2 See CAJ (1997) ibid. pp. 14-16.
3 The Commission produced a series of pamphlets on rights that are not adequately
protected by the European Convention. |
