An amnesty International mission has begun a visit to Northern Ireland to urge political and community leaders, along with senior police officers, to intensify their work towards building a new human-rights climate.
The four-member delegation spent the weekend in Portadown, where it met families living in areas of recurring violence in the town. Representatives from the Orange Order and the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition also met the delegation.
The group hopes to meet the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, and the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ms Liz O'Donnell, tomorrow when it travels to Dublin.
The agenda of the visiting group includes police and security forces practices that violate human rights. They will also raise issues such as the existence of emergency legislation in the North and South, along with abuses by paramilitary groups.
A spokesman for the group, Mr Richard Reoch, said it would attempt to meet all the main figures in the North over the week. "There is a momentum towards a new climate for human rights in Northern Ireland, and that is based not only on these new institutions that are emerging but also by putting in place a number of safeguards for human rights for all members of the community."
He said Amnesty International could offer an advisory role along with its more traditional work of monitoring.