The proposed Northern Ireland Bill of Human Rights has came under fire from senior Ulster Unionists at the launch ceremony in Belfast's Waterfront Hall today.
Mr Dermot Nesbitt said the proposals appeared not to mention the territorial integrity of Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom.
He said: "If there is that glaring omission then I have to say this proposed Bill of Rights is biased".
Chief Commissioner, Prof Brice Dickson, unveiled the proposals which cover virtually all aspects of life in Northern Ireland and are being sent to Northern Secretary Dr John Reid in preliminary form ahead of widespread public consultation.
The provision of a Bill of Rights was one of the requirements of the Good Friday Agreement and, Prof Dickson said, with the publication of their proposals "we can all begin to believe that a legal system can at last be put in place which fully protects people against basic injustices."
He said he wanted the proposals to "stimulate thought and discussion" and unify rather than divide."
And he said he did not want to see any Bill of Rights which followed to become "a plaything of lawyers or politicians".
But when the launch was thrown open to comment from invited guests, Mr Nesbitt launched an attack, saying an initial reading of the document, he was "saddened if not angry" at its content.
Mr Nesbitt, who was speaking as an Ulster Unionist and not a minister, said identity, ethos and parity of esteem was fundamental to the problems of Northern Ireland. He told the Commission: "You duck the issue, you weave and waffle around it. You evade that which we were looking for."
He added the Commission had gone beyond its remit and "spent a great deal of time and effort doing what it was not meant to do and actually spent little time doing what it was meant to do."
However Sinn Fein accused Mr Nesbitt of firing the "first salvo in a unionist campaign to hollow out another key aspect of the Good Friday Agreement".
Ms Michelle Gildernew, the MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, dismissed his assertion the proposals were biased or that the Commission stepped outside its remit.
She said the minister's comments indicated the Ulster Unionist Party viewed the Bill of Rights process and the potential change it heralded as "some sort of undefined loss when in fact it should be seen as a net gain for the entire community".
Ms Gildernew claimed, as with the policing issue, the unionist party was squaring up for battle in a bid to "limit, dilute and prevent" a comprehensive Bill of Rights emerging from the other side of Westminster legislation.
PA