Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill

I shall speak to Clause 19 stand part. The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission said that Clause 19 would prevent the commission from compelling evidence or accessing a place of detention for the purpose of investigating any matter related to the period before 1 January 2008. The commission could not, for example, require the production of any document created on or before 31 December 2007, even if it was directly relevant to a human rights violation existing on or arising on 1 January 2008. The effect of the time limit is particularly severe in relation to the gathering of evidence. It is difficult to imagine how any human rights violation could effectively be investigated without looking into events and information from previous years. It is thus likely in practice that several years would have to elapse before the commission would be able to use the powers to any effect. In England, Scotland and Wales, the sister bodies of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission have, and will have, powers with no arbitrary time limit. In the Republic of Ireland, the Irish Human Rights Commission—established in parallel with the Northern Ireland commission as a result of the Belfast Good Friday agreement—has extensive powers to compel evidence with no such time limit. The agreement and the corresponding treaty committed the two states maintaining an equivalent level of protection of human rights in Northern Ireland and the Republic. Clause 19 serves no useful purpose for the protection of human rights, and should either be left out or amended to provide a positive formulation, allowing the commission to exercise its powers on matters arising before, as well as after, commencement of the new Act.