AI WESTERN EUROPE REGIONAL ACTION NETWORK

Northern Ireland Specialist: Natalie Kabasakalian
WERAN Coordinator: Thesil Morlan <thesil@midcoast.com>

ASSASSINATION OF NORTHERN IRELAND
HUMAN RIGHTS ATTORNEY ROSEMARY NELSON:
GOVERNMENT CONTINUES TO IGNORE INTERNATIONAL DEMANDS FOR INDEPENDENT INQUIRY

On March 15, 1999, Rosemary Nelson, a 40-year-old lawyer, human rights defender, and mother of three children, was killed by a car bomb in Lurgan, Northern Ireland. Through her unwavering commitment to human rights and the rule of law, Rosemary Nelson dedicated her life to bringing justice and peace to Northern Ireland. She was a highly respected solicitor, and a board member of the Belfast-based Committee for the Administration of Justice.

Like Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane who was murdered ten years earlier, Nelson endured threats, intimidation and harassment from members of Northern Ireland's police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). Like Finucane, in championing her clients' rights Nelson subjected herself to menacing from a police force that did not recognize a distinction between the work of solicitors and the causes of their clients. But in addition to the threats made against her life, Nelson also suffered indignities peculiar to her gender, including being subjected to vile sexual comments from prison officers when she entered facilities to meet with her clients.

Dato' Param Cumaraswamy, the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, has repeatedly voiced his concerns to the government of the United Kingdom about the RUC's "intimidation, hindrance, harassment and improper interference" with the work of solicitors. Although the Special Rapporteur specifically identified Rosemary Nelson as a highly vulnerable solicitor, and called upon the government to implement measures ensuring her security, no such measures were taken. Recommendations the Special Rapporteur made in a 1998 report concerning police threats against solicitors have gone largely unheeded and unimplemented.

Meanwhile, the official investigation into Rosemary Nelson's murder, headed by English police officer Colin Port, so far has failed either to identify either the persons who carried out her murder or to address the question of police involvement. In a decision criticized by Amnesty and the human rights community, the government announced that none of the police officers who threatened Mrs. Nelson would be prosecuted.

In a joint statement issued in December 1999, Amnesty, British Irish Rights Watch, Committee on the Administration of Justice, Human Rights Watch, Center for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers of the International Commission of Jurists and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights noted "with great concern" that the Port investigation had not resulted in any arrests. Recognizing that a murder investigation alone was an inadequate response to this murder, the NGOs also called upon "the UK authorities to meet their obligations under international standards to carry out an independent, thorough and impartial inquiry" into the circumstances surrounding Rosemary Nelson's murder.

In recent months, while the Port investigation continues without progress, details of extensive official collusion in Pat Finucane's murder, and cover-up of that involvement, have been revealed in newspaper reports. Nevertheless, the British government continues to insist on the viability and legitimacy of the Port investigation, and refuses to accede to international demands for an independent inquiry into the Finucane and Nelson murders. In a significant development, the Irish government recently declared its support for an independent inquiry into Pat Finucane's murder.

Many of Mrs. Nelson's clients are now being represented by another courageous woman, who herself now faces official harassment and threats.

The following letter may be used as a basis for your own appeals
or simply photocopied on personal stationery or professional letterhead. Thank you.