Publications

Annual Statement 2012

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (the Commission) is delivering its first Annual Human Rights Statement in difficult times. Across Europe we face all the persistent problems of protection of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights; problems that are exacerbated by the economic situation. At a time when people desperately need the support of the State, it has less to offer. And the choice of where to deliver State assistance is not always made on the basis of human rights principles. In the United Kindgom (UK), often ill-informed discourse is an added complication, with some public figures disparaging and denigrating the very fundamentals of the human rights protection system. And, this is the context for a consultative process on a UK Bill of Rights that is aimed at fixing what does not seem to me to be broken.

The situation is even more troublesome in Northern Ireland (NI). Here, in addition to those problems common to the rest of the UK, we are faced with a swathe of distinct issues. These include, but are by no means limited to:

• the knock-on impact of the UK Bill of Rights debate on what needs to continue to be a discrete reflection on a Bill of Rights for NI
• the many human rights-related challenges in dealing with the past.

This is the context in which the Commission operates and in which it must continue to deliver.

Being a small and modestly funded body, the Commission is confronted by the challenge of making difficult choices regarding the issues on which it will focus. It makes these choices on the basis of a firm adherence to principle and an ongoing process of listening.