Professor Brice Dickson

An "immoral" government has undermined human rights in Northern Ireland and is threatening to do the same across the rest of the UK, an official watchdog has warned.

Ministers are set to prevent "the real truth" about collusion between security forces and loyalist paramilitaries from emerging, the chief commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has said.

And in an interview with ePolitix.com to mark "human rights day", Professor Brice Dickson also warned that there had been an "over-reaction" to the international terrorist threat that was undermining traditional civil liberties.

As talks continue to reach a deal on restoring the Stormont power sharing executive, Professor Dickson also accused ministers of using the powers of his commission as a bargaining chip with which to extract further concessions from republicans.

And the same "immoral" position is being taken by ministers on the repeal of the anti-terrorism legislation that applies in Northern Ireland.

Collusion claims

The commission chief told this website that the government "seems to be doing all that it can to obstruct inquiries into collusion".

He highlighted the Inquiries Bill, which was announced in the Queen's Speech, as a sign that the government "is not too keen to let the real truth be known in these situations".

"They appear to be allowing government ministers to prevent any tribunal of inquiry that is set up from hearing important information relevant to the handling of informers," said Professor Dickson.

"That has the potential to completely undermine the effectiveness of any investigation"

He added that if the government does not have something to hide "then it should be as open and transparent as possible in these investigations".

"The current government, I hope, cannot be held responsible for the mistakes of previous governments so I don't see why the current government has to be so coy about bringing out into the open systems failures in the past."

Bargaining chip

The chief commissioner said that the British and Irish governments had failed to give proper prominence to human rights issues in the political talks held over recent months and years.

"They have allowed, it seems to us, the powers of the commission to be used as one of the bargaining chips in the talks between the political parties," he said.

"I wouldn't be surprised if the two prime ministers don't make some reference to the powers of the Human Rights Commission which they see as something they can give to Sinn Fein in return for concessions from the republican movement.

"The reality is that human rights should be above politics, and the Human Rights Commission needs effective powers whatever the political environment in which it is working."

Professor Dickson added that the government "has allowed human rights to be politicised in Northern Ireland".

"That is very bad for the whole concept of human rights because political parties will try to manipulate the concept of human rights to suit their own political agendas," he told this website.

Anti-terror laws

There was also criticism of the continued existence of a range of anti-terrorism laws that apply specifically to Ulster.

The Diplock court system, under which some defendants are tried before a judge rather than jury, and extended powers of arrest were singled out for criticism.

"They, too, have been allowed to remain in place as part of a part of a potential bargaining chip for the talks that are ongoing," said the chief commissioner.

"If there is movement from, in particular, the republican paramilitaries on certain issues then the government might be able to relax some of the extra anti-terrorism measures.

"Apart from being immoral in itself, that ignores the fact that there are very active loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland who are able to wreak just as much havoc as republicans."

Traditional respect

Professor Dickson also expressed concern about the impact on human rights as the government seeks to tighten laws designed to deal with the international terrorist threat.

He said Britain was "seeing an unfortunate tendency to set human rights up against security as if they are bi-polar opposites".

"In fact providing security is an aspect of providing human rights protection, because the first right that people have is the right to be secure in their beds at night," he said.

"I think the UK government has over-reacted to the international terrorism threat."

And he warned: "One of the lessons from Northern Ireland is that excessive anti-terrorism measures can themselves become part of the problem that has to be solved, rather than part of the solution."

Controversial plans to introduce identity cards could also be a concern, he said, but "so much depends on the detail of the legislation that provides for them".

"The human rights commission view on this is that ID cards are acceptable in principle but there needs to be adequate safeguards in place to ensure that they are not abused."

Human rights

There was further criticism of continuing human rights abuses in Northern Ireland.

Professor Dickson said the commission had been "very vocal" in condemning parties which urge respect for human rights while remaining linked to organisations which engage in punishment beatings and shootings.

He said that "for some parties to be calling for improvements in the human rights situation... and on the other hand not to be doing all they can to bring these punishment beatings and shootings to an end is hypocrisy of the highest order".

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission was created following the Good Friday agreement in a bid to deal with such issues.

It has a statutory role to ensure that the human rights of everyone in Northern Ireland are protected in law, policy and practice.

Since being established following the 1998 agreement, however, it has come under fire from both unionist and nationalist communities.

Internal disagreements have also prompted resignations, with the number of commissioners reduced from 13 to six as a result.

The government has said it intends to appoint a new chief commissioner along with a full set of commission members.