Statewatch bulletin Number 3 July/August 1991 largely as a remand prison, has been the site of conflict (APRN NORTHERN IRELAND feature, 7.3.91). Recently, this has intensified as prisoners have resisted a policy of enforced Loyalist/Republican integration. In May it emerged that the Northern Ireland Office is considering a State of Emergency major £15 million refurbishment programme to bring the prison into line with the Woolf Report recommendation to end slopping As the British government continues to seek a basis for talks on out within five years (Irish News, 21.5.91). Another recent the future government of the North of Ireland, it is simultaneously indication of the problems at the prison was the four week hunger strengthening its emergency powers and military/police forces. strike by Gerard Clarke which began when he was placed in During the House of Lords Committee state of the Emergency isolation following his refusal of an attempt by the RUC to recruit Provisions Bill, the government introduced further amendments, him as an informer (Irish News, 18.4.91). some of which are described as `safeguards'. A new power permits `civilian specialists' to accompany RUC/army search teams when Human Rights raiding homes and other premises. If, during the course of exercising their emergency powers, the authorities stumble across Britain's record on human rights was under scrutiny by the United an offence which they take to be in some way `connected with the Nations Human Rights Committee at the beginning of April. In emergency', this offence will be `scheduled', and therefore tried by particular, the British government's representative, Mr. Halliday, a jury-less Diplock Court. Presenting this as an anti-racketeering faced forceful questioning on `shoot-to-kill' practices (Just News, measure, and citing the case of Al Capone, Lord Belstead said that May 1991). The same practices are at the centre of Amnesty `experience in Northern Ireland and elsewhere was that the International's new report United Kingdom, Human Rights criminals who engage in racketeering often fail to meet their other Concerns, released in the United States on 11 June. (see obligations under the law'. Northern Ireland Information Service, Andersonstown News, 15.6.91; APRN 13.6.91; Irish News, 7.6.91). 13.5.91. Resisting the argument that PACE provisions should apply to the Northern Ireland - new material detention and interrogation of people seized under emergency powers, the government is `prepared to consider' the appointment United Kingdom, Human Rights Concerns, Amnesty of a Commissioner to monitor what goes on in the `terrorist International, 1991. holding centres' and will introduce a statutory code of practice on the detention, treatment, questioning and identification of suspects Double Sentence, Committee for the Transfer of Irish Prisoners, (see Irish News, 25.4.91). Meanwhile, reports of physical ill- available from PO Box 303, Tomb Street, Belfast BT1, price 2.00. treatment continue to emerge (eg Amnesty International 1991; Also available from this group is the 50 minute video `Sentenced', Irish News, 15.6.91). price £20 + £1 p&p. In March, 500 extra troops arrived in the North to reinforce border garrisons, this was followed by another 500 at the end of May bringing the total to around 11,500 (in addition to the 6,200 The Right of the People of the Whole of Ireland to Self- members of the UDR). The RUC is seeking government approval Determination, Unity, Sovereignty and Independence, Harvey, to increase its numbers by 400. As part of this recruitment drive, Richard, New York Law School Journal of International and the Chief Constable, Hugh Annesley, is campaigning to increase Comparative Law, Vol 11, pp167-206. the proportion of Catholics in the RUC, currently running at under 7% (see Irish News, 1.3.91; 11.3.91; 20.3.91; 18.6.91). Review Article on Stalker, Hillyard, Paddy, Linen Hall Review, April 1991, pp 30-32. Prisons The Ireland Agenda - a new two-monthly briefing produced by The Committee for the Transfer of Irish Prisoners has launched a Labour Committee on Ireland. Details from LCI, BM Box 5355, new pamphlet explaining the social, legal and political problems of London WC1N 3XX. getting Irish prisoners transferred from Britain to the North of Ireland. `Double Sentence' shows how since 1973 the British Prisoners' Rights to Privacy and Article 8 of the European government has stood behind eight different reasons for refusing Convention on Human Rights, Jones, Alana. Belfast: Standing transfer. This issue has also been taken up by the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights, 1991. Advisory Committee on Human Rights which is currently considering a paper by lawyer Alana Jones on prisoners' rights to privacy under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human CIVIL LIBERTIES Rights. The paper concludes that `restrictions on the availability of visits, compassionate home leave and transfer to prisons nearer ID cards - a few steps nearer home, based solely on punitive grounds cannot be justified' (see also Irish News, 18.4.91). The introduction of `voluntary' identity cards has moved nearer For many years Belfast's Victorian Crumlin Road prison, used with the Home Secretary's proposal that banks and building societies should introduce a common photocard bearing the £7.95. owner's signature and laser-engraved digitised photograph. The proposal comes out of a working group comprised of AIDS and Human Rights in the European Communities, representatives of the police, banks, building societies and Home Carle, Pia, Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, 1991, 71pp. Office officials as a means of combatting money-laundering and the opening of accounts in false names (see Statewatch, no 1). Drugs and the law, Crawford, Peter (chair), Justice, 1991, 50pp, This comes on top of the decision that in future driving licences £4. will carry photographs. The Department of Transport argues that the loss of a driving licence causes difficulties for owners and the Peers, queers and commons: the struggle for gay law reform `absence of a photograph may make it difficult for the police when from 1950 to the present, Jeffrey-Poulter, Stephen. Routledge, they are trying to establish a driver's identity.' 1991, 296pp, £9.99 (pb) The government's main objection to the introduction of `voluntary' IDs cards is not one of principle but of the high costs of Immigration law and practice in the United Kingdom, introducing them and the police's reluctance to administer such a Macdonald, Ian and Blake, Nicholas J, Butterworths, 1991, 702pp, system. The encouragement of `voluntary' ID cards by the £75 (hb) government was confirmed in a recent letter from the Home Office to the Association of Metropolitan Authorities Police Committee. Building a people's Europe: 1992 and the social dimension: the It said that although there might be a significant number of people facts, the proposals and the legislation, Maes, Maire-Elizabeth , who would object to compulsory cards on `civil liberties grounds': Whurr, 1990, 104pp. It is by no means apparent, however, that a similar objection can A study of the Police Complaints System, Maguire, M and properly be made to a voluntary system. The objection would Corbett, C., HMSO, 1991, 232pp, £17.95. depend for its validity on the hypothesis that a voluntary card must inevitably develop into a compulsory one, which seems The Human Rights Committee - Its role in the development of questionable. the International Covenant on civil and Political Rights, McGoldrick, Dominic. (Oxford Monographs in International Law) Guardian, 20.6.91; Department of Transport press release, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1991, 576pp, £60 (pb). 25.3.91; Home Office letter to the AMA, dated 30.4.91. Report to the Home Secretary on procedures for the Liberty supervision of the investigation of complaints against the police, Police Complaints Authority, (231), HMSO March 1991, The Spring issue of the redesigned Liberty (NCCL) quarterly 45pp, £7.35. magazine Civil liberty Agenda contains features by Richard Norton-Taylor on the concept of `national security`, and Philip World criminal justice systems: a survey, Terrill, Richard J, Knightley on news management in the Gulf War. USA: Anderson, 1984. 417pp. Available from: OICJ, Social Report on the Criminal Record and Information System, £2 (inc Sciences Faculty, University of Reading. p&p) from Liberty looks at police criminal records and calls for a comprehensive inquiry particularly with arrangements for greater Pornography in a free society, Hawkins, Gordon and Zimring, EC police co-operation coming into place. Franklin E., Cambridge University Press, 1988, Paperback ed: Liberty launched a `Campaign for Criminal Justice Reforms' on 1991, 236pp, £10.95. Looks at the wider political issues 20 June centred on convictions based on uncorroborated concerning pornography, mainly in the United States. confessions and discredited forensic evidence. It is calling for a permanent Justice Review Body and a Standing Judicial Inquiry to Lessons from Northern Ireland, Hayes, John and O'Higgins, look at existing cases. Paul (eds), SLS Legal Publications, Queen's University of Belfast, Liberty, 21 Tabard Street, London SE1 4LA. 1991, 329pp, £14.95. Collection of papers, revised before publication and thoroughly documented, from the proceedings of a Civil liberties - new material conference, covering legal, social and political perspectives on the situation in Northern Ireland. The following are recent publications added to the library of the National Council for Civil Liberties, 21 Tabard Street, London Called to court: a public review of criminal justice in Northern SE1 4LA. Tel: 071-403-3888. They are available for reference. Ireland, John Jackson, Rosemary Kilpatrick and Clare Harvey, Please make an appointment if you wish to visit - a small charge is SLS Legal Publications, Queen's University of Belfast, 1991, made to non-members. 231pp, £12.95 (pb).