Brice Dickson hits back at critics of the proposals

A human rights commissioner has hit back at critics who said proposals for a bill of rights in Northern Ireland undermined existing human rights and equality legislation.

The views of more than 300 organisations and individuals on a bill of rights for Northern Ireland were published on Tuesday.

The Human Rights Commission received the submissions from a wide range of people and groups in response to a consultation document issued in September 2001.

Chief Commissioner Professor Brice Dickson said the publication of these submissions proved the accusations were unfounded and showed the strength of feeling among people in favour of a bill of rights.

Professor Dickson has come under increasing pressure recently with concern over his handling of a legal case arising out of the Holy Cross dispute in north Belfast and a spate of high profile resignations from the commission.

He has also come under pressure due to the fact that a bill of rights has not been drawn up more than five years after one was envisaged in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

However, Professor Dickson said publication of a summary of the views of 340 individuals and organisations was proof the bill was very much a work in progress.

Final conclusions

But he said no firm decisions had been taken on what the commission would say in its final advice to Secretary of State Paul Murphy.

He said the commission hoped to publish an interim paper on the bill of rights in the autumn which would aid a proposed cross-party forum on the issue.

Its final conclusions will be submitted about a year later, depending on progress.

In July, Professor Dickson admitted flaws in the way he handled the Holy Cross Girls' Primary School dispute.

A three-month protest in 2001 by loyalist residents at the Ardoyne interface in north Belfast saw pupils of Holy Cross being escorted to and from school by the security forces on a daily basis.

The dispute centred on alleged attacks on Glenbryn homes by the larger nationalist community in Ardoyne.

It ended after local Protestant residents were promised social improvements and new security measures.

Although the commission backed a legal action challenging the policing of the school protest, Professor Dickson expressed privately-held reservations about the merit of the case in correspondence with the then chief constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan.

The commission is a statutory body which was established under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

Its role is to ensure that the human rights of everyone in Northern Ireland are protected in law, policy and practice.