THE British government has been strongly criticised in advance of a debate in the House of Commons today on the decision to renew the whole range of emergency powers in the North.
The arguments have come from human rights and civil liberties groups, including the British government's own statutory advisory body.
The Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights (SACHR), which was set up to advise the Northern Secretary on issues of human rights and discrimination, has questioned the decision to renew the Emergency Provisions Act for a further two years.
Five leading civil liberties groups in Britain and Ireland have called on all MPs to underpin the peace process by voting against the renewal of the legislation when it receives its second rending in the Commons today.
The chairman of SACHR, Mr Michael Lavery QC, said in a statement at the weekend "With sustained peace for some 16 months now, a significant opportunity exists to enhance the protection of individual human rights and civil liberties."
In its recent annual report, SACHR advised the British government to consider the value of dropping the Emergency Provisions Act (EPA) from the statute book in its entirety.
SACHR also recommended immediate action to suspend certain powers from the EPA.
It said the power of internment had not been used for 20 years and should not be re enacted jury trial should be restored for scheduled offences at the earliest opportunity the standard for admissibility of confessions should be raised to that applied to non terrorist offences and the special powers under the EPA to stop, question and search people should be repealed.
The Belfast based Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) said that renewal of the emergency provisions at this time would be "unnecessary, unhelpful and counter productive".
In a statement, the CAJ said that four other groups Liberty, the Irish and Scottish Councils for Civil Liberties, and British/Irish Rights Watch agreed that the renewal of the legislation was not in line with the government's stated commitment to the protection of human rights.
In a letter sent to all MPs, the chairwoman of the CAJ, Ms Christine Bell, said "The prestigious UN Human Rights Committee recommended that specific efforts be made to enhance in Northern Ireland confidence in the administration of justice, but the renewal of emergency legislation for a further two years is unlikely to achieve this goal and is particularly unhelpful at this time."
The UN committee, in July 1995, had described the emergency provisions as excessive and had called for the dismantling of "the apparatus of laws infringing civil liberties which were designed for periods of emergency".
The UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, said yesterday that it was right that the emergency provisions should be renewed. His party would be supporting the government motion on this in the Commons today, he added.
Mr Trimble said the legislation was "obviously necessary". They were "not out of the wood yet". This was obvious, he said, from Mr Gerry Adams's remark last year that the IRA had not gone away, and from the recent murders.
The Alliance Party human rights spokeswoman, Ms Mary Clark Glass, however, strongly criticised the British government for failing to take a fresh approach on human rights in the North.