A human rights report on the policing of the controversial Corrib gas project has recommended that the Department of Justice publish a guide defining methods that may be legitimately used by An Garda Síochána during protests.
The report on the Corrib Human Rights Monitoring Initiative states this guide would help ensure that gardaí “respect and fulfil the right to peaceful protests and exercise their legal duty and responsibility to prevent, detect and investigate crime and to safeguard the right of others to public order and security”.
The guide would also clarify issues surrounding protests on private grounds and acceptable procedures for private security personnel.
The report, by international group Frontline Defenders, is the result of a six-month project undertaken with Amnesty International Ireland, during which observer Sarah Bassiuoni met a wide range of stakeholders, including protest groups, Shell EP Ireland, private security personnel and the gardaí.
Among its recommendations is a proposal that Shell “communicates to the community the purposes for which surveillance may be undertaken by its security service” and the procedures and safeguards it uses “to ensure the right to privacy is adequately protected” during surveillance. In a statement Shell said the work by its security firm was “carried out to the highest standards” and in accordance with the law.