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Assembly Ombudsman for NI Assembly Standards bill

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission is a statutory body established under section 68 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998. Under section 69(1) of the Act it has a duty to keep under review the adequacy and effectiveness in Northern Ireland of law and practice relating to the protection of human rights.

The Commission uses the European Convention on Human Rights and other international human rights standards as a basis for examining any legislative or policy proposal. However, while it might seem to be obvious that transparency and ethical conduct in government are democratic rights of the citizen, the international instruments are not especially clear on that point; the European Convention, for example, deals explicitly with the institutions of democracy only in prescribing free and fair elections (Article 3 of the First Protocol). By and large, the definition and enforcement of parliamentary ethics are seen as matters within the discretion of each state (or devolved legislature).

The Commission would nevertheless like to make a few comments in relation to the Assembly Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (Assembly Standards) Bill, and specifically about subsection (3) of clause 1. In order to do so we will first explain briefly the ways in which we think the Bill raises issues that come within the scope of human rights, and thus within this Commission’s competence to comment.

assembly-ombudsman-for-northern-ireland-assembly-standards-bill-september-2002.pdf