The State's domestic and foreign policy on human rights in 2000 failed to comply with international standards, it has been claimed in an Amnesty International audit report. The report by the Irish section of Amnesty also said there was a lack of accountability by the Government and law-enforcement officials on human-rights issues.
It identified areas of concern, including what it described as the lack of a fully independent police complaints procedure, the absence of effective safeguards to prevent the ill-treatment of prisoners and the continuation of the Offences Against the State Act which, it stated, contained provisions violating the right to a fair trial.
The audit addressed the right to freedom from ill-treatment of those deprived of their liberty. The State's compliance with its duty to protect such persons against ill-treatment was monitored by international bodies in a number of ways, it stated.
The audit recommended that statutory provision be made for a fully independent police complaints procedure, which might be modelled on the Office of Police Ombudsman introduced in Northern Ireland.
The procedure should include investigation of all complaints by external investigators wholly independent of the Garda. It also recommended that the Government should introduce a right for people in Garda custody to have a lawyer present during interrogations.
Yesterday, a spokesman for the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, said he accepted that arrangements for dealing with complaints against the Garda needed to be reformed. He intended to bring forward appropriate proposals to amend the Garda Siochana (Complaints) Act 1986 as quickly as possible.
This was complex legislation and raised matters which affected important rights. The Minister had undertaken a detailed review which was close to finalisation. It would not only focus on complaints against individual gardai but wider policing concerns.
In the Amnesty report, steps to introduce a modern framework for the management of prisons were recommended including the introduction of a Prison Service Act, making provision for an independent inspectorate of prisons, restructured visiting committees and new prison rules.
An independent inquiry should be carried out into whether the manner in which complaints against prison officers had been investigated had, in the past, led to certain officers enjoying impunity, examine the complaints procedures and make recommendations for ensuring that complaints could be impartially, independently and thoroughly investigated, and the need to establish a prison ombudsman, it stated.
Yesterday, Mr Sean Aylward, director general of the Prison Service, said the Prisons Bill was at an advanced stage and would include a number of provisions one of which was for independent inspectors. Also, new prison rules were in their final stages. Two years of enormously hard work had gone into them, he said.
The audit's author, Ms Sophie Maggenis, said at a press conference yesterday that if human rights were to be given effective protection, the Government must be held accountable for its policy and practice.
"This audit has identified an accountability deficit in respect of both domestic and foreign policy," Ms Maggenis said.
The report welcomed the establishment of the Irish Human Rights Commission and stated that Amnesty had identified these areas of concern to it.