"THE IRISH Human Rights Commission is respected at home and abroad. Don't destroy that," the Council of Europe commissioner on human rights urged yesterday.
Thomas Hammarberg was speaking to journalists during a two-day international discussion on strengthening national human rights institutions in Dublin.
"'If it ain't broke, don't mend it', and it ain't broke," he said.
In several European countries there was discussion on structures of human rights bodies, he said. "But we have to be careful not to destroy the competencies that have been built up. Be careful with what you have, and respect what's there."
He added that the Irish Human Rights Commission and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission had a contractual basis through being signed by the two governments in the Belfast Agreement.
Referring to other human rights bodies like the Equality Authority and the Data Protection Commissioner, he said there was a move in Europe towards linking them to parliamentary bodies rather than governments.
"We believe that is importance for their independence. It also means their funding is protected irrespective of who is in government, or economic ups and downs."
He warned against "belt-tightening" in difficult economic circumstances as it could prove short-sighted.
"If unemployment is coming, you can see a rise in xenophobia. When it comes to human rights institutions, belt-tightening is not always the best way of dealing with these issues.
"In times of economic difficulty you may begin to plant the seeds of social tension in society, and human rights protection is the best defence against social polarisation."
Dr Kevin McNamara, former British Labour MP and former shadow spokesman on Northern Ireland, said the proposal to merge the Irish Human Rights Commission with other bodies was an undermining of the Belfast Agreement. "The onus was put on the Irish Government to have a human rights commission. It didn't have one before."
He said it would be a bad precedent to alter the terms of the Belfast Agreement, and if the Irish Government did it, other people would do the same.
He said in his experience such mergers did not result in savings and made the bodies less effective.
"Because there are less of them they are more under the influence of Government departments and civil servants. If it is necessary for the different bodies to work in concert they can always do so. But what if there is a conflict between a human rights issue and an equality issue? You want to have bodies that can deal with that."
Dr Maurice Manning, president of the human rights commission, said the commission hoped and expected that whatever changes were proposed were driven by a key dynamic; the determination to strengthen rather than weaken human rights in all their varied aspects. He added that he hoped to see the link between the commission and the national parliament greatly strengthened.
Earlier he told RTÉ that the Oireachtas had decided that a number of bodies, including the Ombudsman, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission and the Irish Human Rights Commission should be headed by a judge or equivalent.