The enactment of the Human Rights Act in Britain and the North, means that from today the 1951 European Convention on Human Rights becomes embedded in British law. In a practical sense this will mean that people in the North will no longer have to take their case to Strasbourg and the court there but will be able to seek redress on a wide range of issues in the courts here. Through more than 30 years of the troubles celebrated legal cases from the North, many involving Republican and Nationalist complainants were taken to Strasbourg in the belief that the European court might deliver the type of justice many believed would be denied them under the British system.
The rights now given legal protection under the Act include the right to life liberty security privacy and the freedom from discrimination. The Human Rights Act was officially launched in Belfast today by the Northern Secretary Peter Mandelson, who said the legislation should fit perfectly within the whole peace process. Republicans gave the Act a positive welcome. However, Sinn Féin's Mitchell McLaughlin said that it must be seen as only one part of the jigsaw of arrangements, institutions and laws necessary to create human rights culture in the North.
