Belfast and Beyond

Sir Ronnie Flanagan, former Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (and, subsequently, the Police Service of Northern Ireland) infamously once declared that he "would publicly commit suicide" if he believed the findings...

The Human Rights Consortium launched its new website today, just in time for a crucial twelve months in the long-running campaign for a Northern Ireland Bill of Rights. I spoke briefly at the launch event for the new site at...

Who's your human rights Person of the Year 2007? Kate Allen (Director of AIUK) successfully nominated Anas el-Banna for the New Statesman version of the Person of the Year 2007 award. Anas is a truly heroic 11 year-old boy who has just...

Human rights lawyer, John Fitzpatrick, gave an inspiring talk on 11 December 2007 at Belfast Exposed Photography . : Taking Liberties? Immigration Policy and the Law. The gallery, as Patrick advertised in his recent post on this blog...

I previously reported how PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde had decided to ignore the advice of the Equality Commission to conduct a proper equality impact assessment before deploying Tasers in Northern Ireland. This followed his...

Local photography gallery and community initiative, Belfast Exposed, has a great looking event happening next Tuesday 11 December, when they welcome "human rights lawyer John Fitzpatrick to a public discussion in the gallery to talk...

I visited our friends ( ahem ) at Global Armour , at their plant near Lisburn on Tuesday. The Northern Ireland company, which used to be called Highmark, was taken over a couple of years ago by the South African company, Global Armour...

The tide of history is flowing fast against the death penalty and this UN resolution is a big step forward. So far, 133 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. Only 25 countries actually carried out executions in...

Thanks to a Freedom of Information inquiry from our friends at the Children's Law Centre, we can now see the very clear advice given by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland to the PSNI on the Chief Constable's proposed...

Our colleagues at CAJ (Committee on the Administration of Justice) present their own take on that Assembly debate where a number of MLAs chose to attack voluntary sector groups and human rights campaigners. CAJ's tempered but robust...

A busy day beckons tomorrow (Thursday) as the Burmese PM-in-exile, Dr Sein Win , arrives in town, with Amnesty as hosts. As well as a meeting with OFMDFM at Stormont Castle, there are party group meetings at the Assembly with...

The Bill of Rights debate just got interesting this last week ... or at least a lot more people seemed to start to take an interest now that, at last, the hitherto slow pace of progress is quickening. First up was professional cynic...

Despite his commitment - only days ago - not to proceed with deployment of Tasers until human rights and equality concerns were met, Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde has now done an about-turn and aims to pilot the devices regardless. The...

Great news today that Shao Jiang, one of the student organisers of the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, is bound for Belfast, to speak at an Amnesty conference next month. Shao spent years in prison in China for his human...

It's the Eleventh Night, as it's known in Northern Ireland, the eve of the Twelfth of July when members and supporters of the Orange Order march to celebrate the victory of King William's forces over those of King James at the Battle...