Progress made, but more to be done on human rights issues in Northern Ireland: NI Human Rights Commission

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has published its Annual Human Rights Statement, highlighting both progress and gaps on a wide range of issues affecting people in Northern Ireland.

As an overview of the human rights landscape over the last year, it includes areas requiring action from the UK Government, NI Executive or public authorities; as well as the Commission’s recommendations to make issues human rights compliant.

This year guest speaker Baroness Shami Chakrabarti provided a keynote address entitled: “Human Rights: A Case for the Defence”. The report was launched up at Parliament Buildings Stormont and hosted by the Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly, Edwin Poots MLA.

Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, Alyson Kilpatrick, stated:

“This year’s Annual Statement once again highlights the challenges facing human rights in Northern Ireland.

We welcomed the return of our political institutions this year but implore our elected officials to take action in tackling the wide range of issues included in our report. We will continue to work closely with colleagues in both Stormont and Westminster; providing advice in line with our statutory duties and holding them to account.

Our report covers areas including health and mental health; education; young people; poverty and cost of living pressures; homelessness and an adequate standard of living; conflict and legacy; racism and hate crime; domestic and sexual violence; and many more.

These issues and many others are affecting their enjoyment of universal human rights and freedoms to which we are all entitled. There is much more to do to ensure that everyone can benefit from the same level of protection and that the level of protection is the highest achievable.”

Baroness Shami Chakrabarti CBE commented:

“It is a daunting privilege to be the guest of a Human Rights Commission that has so stood out in its moral leadership in recent times. I have no doubt that in the years to come, Northern Ireland will more and more become a human rights and peace-building beacon for the wider world.”

Read the Annual Statement 2024 here.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Interview opportunity with Alyson Kilpatrick, Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.

Press contact to arrange interview: Jason McKeown - 07935022001

Email: media@nihrc.org

For other queries contact media@nihrc.org

• The NI Human Rights Commission is a statutory public body established in 1999 to promote and protect human rights. In accordance with the Paris Principles the Commission reviews the adequacy and effectiveness of measures undertaken by the UK Government to promote and protect human rights, specifically within Northern Ireland. You can read more about what we do here: https://nihrc.org/about-us/what-we-do
• The Annual Statement is a report assessing the state of human rights in Northern Ireland, which is published each year. You can read the 2024 Annual Human Rights Statement here: (Link)
• There is a live stream of the event which can be accessed here: https://www.youtube.com/live/c5PolJIjDKU
• About Baroness Shami Chakrabarti:
  • Shami Chakrabarti (Baroness Chakrabarti CBE PC) is a human rights lawyer and campaigner, Labour Peer and was Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales from September 2016 to April 2020. She was the Director of Liberty (the National Council for Civil Liberties) from 2003 to 2016 and its In House Counsel from 2001 to 2003. Prior to that she was at the bar and then a Home Office lawyer (1996-2001). She is the Chair of London’s Gate Theatre.
  • She was a panelist on the Leveson Inquiry into media culture, ethics and practice after the phone-hacking scandal in 2011/12 and one of an international group who carried the Olympic flag at the opening of the London games in 2012.
  • She was the Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University and of the University of Essex and has been an Honorary Professor at the Universities of Bristol and Manchester and the London School of Economics. She served on the Board of the British Film Institute (BFI) for many years and on the Members Council of the Tate. She is a Master of the Bench of Middle Temple.