The UN special rapporteur, Mr Param Cumaraswamy, has called for a full judicial inquiry into the death of the human rights lawyer, Ms Rosemary Nelson, who died when a loyalist bomb exploded under her car in Lurgan, Co Armagh, two years ago.
Addressing the United Nations in Geneva yesterday, the UN rapporteur also repeated his call for an independent inquiry into the killing of Mr Pat Finucane. A Catholic solicitor, Mr Finucane was shot dead by the UFF in 1989.
Mr Cumaraswamy said the British government's investigation into collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries in Ms Nelson's and Mr Finucane's deaths, headed by the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir John Stevens, was unlikely to satisfy human rights organisations.
"I am concerned that the British government's investigation into the murder of Rosemary Nelson has not resulted in any arrests. In order to avoid any allegations of impunity levelled at the [British] government I believe that it is essential for an independent judicial inquiry to be set up," he added.
The rapporteur said he was frustrated at not having received a response from the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, to a letter sent last September supporting the setting-up of a public judicial inquiry.