4 July 2007
Human Rights Division
Ministry of Justice
Post Point 5, 6th floor
Selborne House
54/60 Victoria Street
London SW1E 6QW
Dear
Draft UK Report under ICESCR
1.
The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (the
Commission) is a statutory body created by the Northern Ireland
Act 1998. It has a range of functions including reviewing the
adequacy and effectiveness of Northern Ireland law and practice
relating to the protection of human rights, advising on legislative
and other measures which ought to be taken to protect human
rights, advising on whether a Bill is compatible with human
rights and promoting understanding and awareness of the
importance of human rights in Northern Ireland. In all of that
work the Commission bases its positions on the full range of
internationally accepted human rights standards, including the
European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), other treaty
obligations in the Council of Europe and United Nations systems,
and the non-binding ‘soft law’ standards developed by the
human rights bodies.
Status of this commentary
2.
The present commentary on the draft UK report to the United
Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (the
Committee) is not a definitive statement of Commission policy
but, in line with past practice, is provided by Commission staff
by way of informal assistance to the officials responsible for the
draft. The commentary here is confined largely to informing
Government of any factual inaccuracies and of any serious gaps
in the information that it is proposed to put to the Committee,
with reference to Northern Ireland.
3.
As has been our normal practice in commenting on draft treaty
reports, we do not propose to publish or otherwise draw
attention to this commentary, which is provided solely in the
interests of improving the quality of the information before the
Committee. However, this is not a confidential document and
may be disclosed by us or by Government.
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