Legislators will be urged to learn from the experience of counter-productive criminal justice measures introduced during the Northern Ireland conflict in a hard-hitting report to be launched by the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) in Westminster on Thursday 31 January. The human rights group Liberty will join the CAJ to urge law-makers not to repeat the mistake of introducing draconian and divisive measures to deal with the terror threat.
CAJ’s spokesperson, Aideen Gilmore said:
“We are taking the lessons from Northern Ireland to the heart of government to say that the current security-driven response to political violence is misguided and policy should instead be formulated to build on the lessons learnt in peace-building in Northern Ireland.”
Liberty Director Shami Chakrabarti said:
“This painful period has taught us that the Government can be truly tough on terrorism by leading a democratic consensus based upon rights, freedoms and the rule of law. When will the Government learn that lengthy pre-charge detention is the best ammunition for terror recruiters and stop re-heating bad policy?”
Key findings include:
° the rule of law and human rights standards must be upheld during times of crisis;
° police forces must receive proper training and accountability measures introduced;
° criminalising entire communities is counter-productive and discriminatory; and
° long or indeterminate pre-trial detention is a major criminal justice setback
The CAJ report on Northern Ireland’s experience, called "Lessons From Northern Ireland", on one of the most protracted and serious violent conflicts in the world, was undertaken as part of a global study entitled “Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights” under the auspices of Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists (ICJ). An ICJ representative, Gerald Staberock, will speak about how the UK compares to other parts of the world, and what are the lessons of the so-called “war on terror”.
Contact: Committee on the Administration of Justice on 02890 961122 and Liberty press office on 020 7378 3656
NOTES TO EDITORS:
1. The report is authored by the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) an independent cross community group working on human rights in Northern Ireland since 1981
www.caj.org.uk 2. Legislators who have referred to the Northern Ireland conflict in relation to the Government’s proposals to extend pre-charge detention limits for terror suspects include: Michael Meacher MP, Labour, July 2007: “Internment has never worked, in Northern Ireland or anywhere else, and since the flow of intelligence from the Muslim community to the police is far and away the most most effective means of countering terrorist activity, to shut it down (which detaining people for nearly 2 months without trial is very likely to do in its impact on Muslim opinion) is utterly counter-productive.”
Read the post on Michael Meacher MP's blog.
3. Alistair Carmichael MP, Lib Dem, back in 2005: "This is no flight of fancy because we have been here before - detention without charge is not a new concept. We tried it in Northern Ireland - we know what the consequences of that were."
Read the article. 4. Ben Wallace MP, Conservative and former soldier in Northern Ireland, speaking in 2005:
“I speak as someone who served in Northern Ireland, and was involved in the implementation of a number of counter-terrorism measures. I often had to stand on the streets of Northern Ireland while members of the Labour party voted against important measures.
Many members of the security forces risked their lives to work within the law, and we did so because we believed that gathering evidence before arrest was the best way to prevent and counter terrorism.
Royal Ulster Constabulary officers and many other people in Northern Ireland learned that there are no shortcuts to counter-terrorism. One cannot wipe the slate clean or try to outmanoeuvre the terrorists in minutes or days, as we have seen in four days of debate on the Floor of the House. Have we forgotten the lessons that we learned in Malaya, Northern Ireland and even in Basra? Terrorism is defeated by winning hearts and minds, when the communities themselves stop people committing such acts.
If the Government think that they will bring communities closer to the forces of law and order by incarcerating people for 90 days without trial they are badly mistaken. It is from communities that we get informers and tip-offs, and it is from the communities that we recruit members of the police forces and the security services that, in the end, defeat terrorism...
The Government have argued that there is a difference between the terrorists in Northern Ireland and those whom we face now. Yes, of course, what the terrorists are trying to achieve by killing innocent people and how they are trying to achieve it is different, but the cause is not. The way to solve terrorism is no different. It is only when communities engage with the forces of law and order that we start to head such people off.
Whatever has caused the current problems in France, how much will the Algerian community, the north African and Muslim communities help the forces of law and order in the next year or two? The answer is very little. We must be careful how we proceed if we take individuals out of communities, which will be predominantly Islamic communities, some in my constituency, and hold them without charge for 90 days.”
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2005-11-09b.325.2 
