Human Rights and the Peace Process in Northern Ireland
| Published date | 01 March 1995 |
| Author | Jane Winter |
| DOI | 10.1177/135822919500100106 |
| Date | 01 March 1995 |
International
Journal
of
Discrimination
and
the
Law,
1995,
Vol.
1,
pp.
63-76
1358-2291/95
$10
©
1995
A B Academic
Publishers.
Printed
in
Great
Britain
HUMAN RIGHTS
AND
THE PEACE PROCESS IN
NORTHERN IRELAND
Jane
Winter*
ABSTRACT
This article considers the role of human rights in the Northern Ireland peace pro-
cess and warns against the consequences
of
omitting human rights from that pro-
cess or allowing them to be used
as
bargaining counters.
It
argues that human
rights violations, the imposition
of
emergency laws, and institutionalised discrim-
ination against Catholics have fuelled and prolonged the conflict over the past
twenty
five
years. The potential constitutional outcomes
of
the peace process are
reviewed and the central role
of
human rights in procuring a peaceful and lasting
settlement
is
discussed, with particular reference
to
certain key issues: an amnesty
for prisoners; policing; criminal justice; righting past wrongs; democratic rights;
and discrimination. Finally, progress in terms
of
human rights issues is assessed
and the need
to
restore and entrench human rights throughout Northern Ireland,
Britain and the Republic of Ireland is affirmed.
On 31 August 1994 the IRA declared a 'complete cessation
of
military
operations' and on 13 October the Combined Loyalist Military Com-
mand1
followed suit. So
farZ
these ceasefires by the main republican
and loyalist paramilitary groupings in Northern Ireland have held, and
it is to be hoped that they signal the beginning
of
the end
of
25 years
of
a conflict which has cost over 3,300 lives.
The ceasefires themselves are only components -although they
are also vital elements -in a broader peace process which has been
going on for some time3 and still has a long way to go. Although
declared to be permanent, it is self-evident that the ceasefires are in fact
conditional upon the peace process reaching a lasting and successful
outcome. This article looks at the role that human rights can play in
the peace process and warns against the consequence
of
omitting them
from it or allowing them to become bargaining counters.
* Jane Winter
is
the Director of British Irish Rights Watch,
an
idependent non-
governmental organisation that monitors and researches the human rights con-
sequences of the conflict
in
Northern Ireland.
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