Sinn Féin has refused to endorse a human rights report commissioned by the policing board because the report justifies the restricted use of plastic bullets.
The authors of the human rights report published yesterday found that the PSNI applied a strict policy on the use of plastic bullets, now known as attenuating energy projectiles - AEPs.
The third annual report on the PSNI's compliance with human rights legislation was written by the board's human rights advisers, lawyers Keir Starmer QC and Jane Gordon.
"Compared to policing in the UK, in the Republic of Ireland and in our international experience, the PSNI continues to demonstrate a genuine commitment to ensuring the integration of human rights standards in everyday policing," the advisers reported.
They found, however, that "key recommendations" made in their two previous reports had not been acted upon. In particular, they complained that the PSNI was not properly updating its policy on issues such as dealing with deaths in custody, bail and arrests, ensuring a professional relationship between police and defence lawyers, and keeping up to date on equality legislation.
The authors however, despite objections from the Sinn Féin members on the policing board, justified the use of plastic bullets in limited, restricted circumstances where it was deemed there was no alternative method of dealing with public order or other violent situations.
Mr Starmer said it should be remembered that the European Convention on Human Rights did not prohibit the use of plastic bullets. What was important were the circumstances in which the projectiles were used. He added that there were occasions when the European Court criticised countries which did not have an alternative between the use of a "truncheon and a live bullet".
The report recommends that the PSNI should consider adopting a policy whereby "the younger the individual against whom an AEP is used the stronger the justification for use will have to be".
Mr Starmer, however, posed what he portrayed as a ridiculous but potentially genuine dangerous situation where, in the absence of plastic bullets, a PSNI officer legally could shoot dead a young person threatening him or her but could not use an AEP.
Sinn Féin MLA and policing board member Martina Anderson said she did not accept there was no alternative to the projectiles and maintained it was the responsibility of the PSNI to find such an alternative.
Her colleague Alex Maskey also stated that "Sinn Féin will not under any circumstances endorse the use of plastic bullets, particularly against children".
