RUSHING LEGISLATION can lead to it not being fully human rights compliant, and this can lead to legal challenges down the line, according to the president of the Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC). Dr Maurice Manning was speaking at the launch of the commission’s annual report yesterday.
“This [a challenge] should be avoided at all costs,” he said, calling on the Government not to guillotine the debate on the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill.
“Many serious flaws have been identified in the Bill,” he said. “More debate, not haste, is needed.”
Even if it was passed now, he added, there was no way it would be operational until October, so there was no reason why it should not be deferred. It was important that legislation was referred to the commission at an early stage in drafting, so that human rights standards could be considered at the earliest stage in drafting.
Last week the commission released its commentary on the Bill, describing several provisions as disproportionate and unnecessary.
It criticised the creation of new “scheduled offences”, bringing them under the ambit of the Special Criminal Court and away from trial by jury, stating that no data had been produced on the existence of jury tampering.
It said that a danger of jury intimidation could be solved in other ways than by their abolition, including allowing them to hear cases from behind screens or via video-link.
It also said it would not solve the problem of the intimidation of witnesses, who are identified in the Special Criminal Court in the same way as in ordinary courts.