I thank the Chairman. On behalf of the Irish Human Rights Commission, I would like to state how glad we are to be here on the tenth anniversary of the agreement and how pleased we are that this committee was established. We hope to make further presentations to it in the future.
Today provides us with an important opportunity to recall that a commitment to respect and protect human rights is a core element of the Good Friday Agreement. In signing the Agreement, the parties affirmed their "commitment to the mutual respect, the civil rights and the religious liberties of everyone in the community".
The Irish Government made a commitment to undertake five specific commitments. These were to establish a national human rights commission with a mandate and remit equivalent to the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, to ratify the Council of Europe framework convention on national minorities, to implement enhanced employment equality legislation, to introduce equal status legislation and to continue to take further steps to demonstrate its respect for the different traditions in the island of Ireland.
We are happy to state substantial progress has been made in implementing the human rights elements of the Good Friday Agreement. The Irish Human Rights Commission was established under the Human Rights Commission Act 2000, with a statutory mandate to endeavour to ensure that the human rights of all persons in the State are fully realised and protected in the law and practice of the State.
Since its establishment, the commission has strived to carry out its powers as laid down in the Act to the fullest extent possible within the resources available to it. It has consistently and extensively recommended to Government how human rights standards can be reflected in Irish legislation. It has appeared before various committees of the Houses to explain to members what we mean by adhering to the highest international standards.
The commission has appeared before the High Court and Supreme Court as amicus curiae or friend of the court in cases concerning human rights issues and it is active in promoting awareness and understanding of human rights and the role of the commission through the media, conferences, research and educational initiatives. The commission was elected to the presidency of the national human rights institutions of Europe within three or four years of its establishment.
Also in line with the Government's commitments under the Agreement, an enhanced Employment Equality Act and Equal Status Act have been enacted and, in May 1999, the Irish Government ratified the Council of Europe framework convention on national minorities. Furthermore, the European Convention of Human Rights Act 2003 gave indirect legal effect to the European Convention on Human Rights, giving greater protection to civil and political rights.
The Good Friday Agreement laid down not only a mandate for the founding of the two human rights commissions, but also the modalities to ensure that strong co-operation was institutionalised between them. The Agreement specifically envisaged the establishment of a joint committee comprising representatives of the two human rights commissions as a forum for considering human rights issues on the island of Ireland, and the legislation under which each commission was established created a statutory basis for this joint committee.
We particularly welcome this opportunity to inform members of the progress of the joint committee. The first official meeting took place in November 2001 and, since then, the committee has met on a regular basis. The joint committee provides an opportunity for both commissions to co-operate in pursuit of commonly agreed objectives. Since its inception, the work and role of the joint committee has grown in strength.
The work of the committee is characterised by very positive relations between the two bodies. It is through a spirit of friendship, co-operation and trust the two commissions work well together. We have not had a single difficulty between us. It is important to make clear the environment within which it operates is so positive.
We meet on a regular basis and through a number of sub-committees and informal meetings. Last week, we attended in Glasgow the opening of the new Scottish human rights commission which is coming into being, with a new human rights commission for England and Wales. We have made informal arrangements to enable the commissions in the four jurisdictions to meet on a regular basis. There will, therefore, be not just a North-South dimension, but also an east-west dimension to the work we are doing.
We have recently appointed a dedicated policy support officer to work specifically with the joint committee to ensure our work does not fall between the cracks of the two commissions. There will be a specific dedicated person in place to ensure the common policies on which we are working will have the proper infrastructure and support to make them happen.
My colleague, Mr. Farrell, will speak to the joint committee about some particular areas of our work. I would like to give just one example to highlight the co-operation received in relation to the Omagh support and self-help group. The chief commissioner, Ms Monica McWilliams, and I met the group on a number of occasions to outline our joint response to its call for support for a cross-Border inquiry into the Omagh bombings of 15 August 1998. The two commissions have publicly called on the British and Irish Governments to establish a review of the Omagh bombings and surrounding events, involving the appointment of a serving or retired judge of international standing to examine all available material to determine whether it is appropriate to institute an independent, cross-Border public inquiry into the atrocity.
As well as through the formal structure of a joint committee, the two commissions have the opportunity to meet regularly in other contexts, particularly at meetings of the European group. In fact, we have been working very well with the Northern commission through the United Nations, the OSCE and the Council of Europe in helping to establish new human rights commissions in eastern and central Europe or to work with commissions which are vulnerable or under-resourced. We have been able to put our expertise at the disposal of these various international bodies. In addition, through Irish Aid which has a strong focus on good governance, the commission has been working with the authorities in Lesotho to establish a human rights commission there and we have invited the Northern commission to share in that work with us, which it has happily agreed to do.
The Irish Human Rights Commission and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission are fully accredited national human rights institutions and both have United Nations "A" status. This gives them a very strong standing within the community of national human rights institutions. They are committed to working together on human rights issues which affect people throughout the island of Ireland. However, implementation of this aspect of the Good Friday Agreement can only be ensured if both commissions are properly resourced and their work supported. I, therefore, encourage the members of the Oireachtas joint committee to ensure there is a continued commitment to the work of the two commissions and that this year, on the tenth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, there is a renewed commitment to strengthening the two commissions, jointly and individually, representing as they do an important element of good practice in this regard.
It is our desire that the Irish Human Rights Commission be answerable directly to the Houses of the Oireachtas. It is inappropriate that we should have as our sponsoring Department, a Department of State, which is security based, not because of any interference or improper behaviour but because human rights are over-arching and the Houses of the Oireachtas are the appropriate bodies to which we should answer. We ask committee members to support us in that regard.
We would like to see a specific human rights committee established in the Houses of the Oireachtas. There is the Sub-Committee on Human Rights of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs but we believe human rights apply here as well as abroad and would like to see a committee established with a specific human rights mandate.
I will now hand over to the commissioner, Mr. Michael Farrell. Two anniversaries have been mentioned. Mr. Farrell also celebrates an anniversary this year. He was part of the civil rights movement 40 years ago and has spent a lifetime fighting for civil and human rights.