Robinson's advice sought on rights body

Senior Government officials have sought the advice of Mrs Mary Robinson on the establishment of a human rights commission, as envisaged in the Belfast Agreement.

A delegation of civil servants, including representatives of the Departments of Justice and Foreign Affairs, travelled to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva recently for consultations.

Mrs Robinson believes the Irish human rights commissions - one for the North, and one for the Republic - could provide the model for other countries to follow. She is pressing for the commissions to be independent of government and to be given wide-ranging powers to investigate violations and abuses of all forms of human rights.

These, she maintains, should have broad remits to embrace issues such as the rights of children, women, travellers and the poor, as well as more orthodox rights such as civil liberties.

Mrs Robinson wrote to the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, last July to express concern that the commissions might prove inadequate. The co-chairman of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Mr Michael Farrell, last week expressed concern at the failure of the Government to publish its proposals for a commission.

According to Mr Brian Burdekin, the High Commissioner's special adviser in this area, "what Ireland does is very important. The UN is putting a lot of emphasis on independent bodies for protecting human rights and so Ireland can set the lead for other countries."

Mr Burdekin, a lawyer and former diplomat, was the federal human rights commissioner in Australia for eight years. He employed six commissioners and 200 other staff, and produced groundbreaking and often controversial reports on issues such as the mentally ill, children and the homeless.

"What's relevant in Canberra and Melbourne is relevant in Ireland also. It's wrong to assume that because you have democracy, a free press and so on, human rights are guaranteed. In my experience, that simply isn't the case."

He estimates that Ireland may have over 100,000 people suffering from a serious mental illness.

"Now maybe your Government's services for these people are first-class. But if they are, I'd be shocked because everywhere else these people are treated like lepers. What about their rights?"

But why should governments agree to set up and pay for a body that will almost inevitably end up being critical of the State?

"Because democracy alone does not guarantee the preservation of human rights and because it's in the UN charter which they have signed up to," he replies.

Although New Zealand, Australia and Canada all have human rights commissions, they are rare in Europe. "But it's to Europe that the former colonies in the developing world look, which makes Ireland's initiative all the more important."

Mr Burdekin says he hopes there will be a full public debate on the nature and powers of a human rights commission here before it is established.