speak truth to power series in ki-media - martin o’brien (northern ireland) “human rights in the...

8/6/2019 Speak Truth To Power Series in KI-Media - Martin O’Brien (Northern Ireland) “Human Rights in the Midst of Conflict”

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in association with

Speak Truth To Power

(“Courage without Borders”) Series

in KI Media

. . . . .

Martin O’Brien (Northern Ireland) “Human Rights in the

Midst of Conflict”

Biography

Martin O'Brien was the Country Representative for Northern Ireland and the

Director of the Reconciliation & Human Rights Programme for Atlantic Philanthropies. This grantmaking program works actively to bringabout lasting changes in the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable people in Northern

Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa and the United States by promotingpeace-building and access to human rights.

Martin O’Brien (Photo: Eddie Adams)

Prior to joining Atlantic in 2004, Mr. O’Brien worked for 17 years co-ordinating the

work of the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), anorganization dedicated to securing the highest standards in the administration of justicein Northern Ireland. It was during Mr. O’Brien’s tenure in 1998 that CAJ was awarded



the prestigious Council of Europe Human Rights Prize in recognition of itscontribution to the peace process in Northern Ireland. Mr. O’Brien has written, spoken and publicly campaigned on a wide range of civil-liberties issues. He has

been centrally involved in the campaign to secure a Bill of Rights forNorthern Ireland and active in securing strong human-rightsprotections in the historic Good Friday Peace Agreement. Mr.

O’Brien has brought concerns about the abuse of human rights in Northern Ireland tointernational audiences, including the United Nations. Mr. O’Brien received his degreein Sociology and Social Administration from Queen’s University Belfast in

1987. In 1996, he was awarded a first class Master's degree in human rights law .In May 1999, Notre Dame College presented him with an honorary Doctoratein recognition of his work to promote justice and peace in Northern Ireland.He is the cofounder of several organizations, including Youth for Peace; the IrishNetwork for Nonviolent Action Training and Education (INNATE); andKilcranny House, a rural education centre committed to healing the divisions whichexist in Northern Ireland. His work has also been honored by Human Rights Watch, which selected him as one of 12 international human rights monitors for 1992.



Interview

I started working at the Comm ittee for the Adm inistration of Justice in NorthernIreland in 1987. The committee has three jobs. First, it publishes and disseminates

information on citizens' rights, such as how the police should behave when

conducting an arrest, or how prisoners are treated. Northern Ireland is a very segregated society-so much so that it is quite possible to reach the

age of eighteen without ever having met someone from a differentpolitical background. In an effort to tackle this segregation there are a range of

groups that organize different activities designed to bring Protestants andCatholics together, perhaps by sponsoring activities, talking about sports, ordiscussing a number of uncontroversial topics. Over time, more controversial issuesarise within these groups. Tension, for example, might be created within the group if someone has a family member in prison. At this point, CAJ might be invited by the

group organizers to facilitate a discussion about prisoners' rights orhave a general discussion about human rights: why are rights important

and where do our ideas about rights come from? CAJ publishes materials about abusesand gets that information into the press. As an extension of this, the committee acts as

an informational resource for students, journalists, community groups,church people, members of the public, politicians, internationaldelegations, and others.

Secondly , CAJ offers legal advice and assistance to people whose rightshave been violated. The committee either acts as their lawyers (as in the five casespresently in the European Court of Human Rights), or helps victims and theirfamilies manage a case beyond the court proceedings. For instance, members might helpthe family in a miscarriage of justice case by identifying sympathetic politicians andattending meetings between the two parties. Likewise, members meet with people from Amnesty International or the Lawyer's Comm ittee for Huma n Rights to enlisttheir support.

Lastly , the committee is involved in lobbying for changes to laws andpractices that violate human rights. For example, it has worked to secure

laws prohibiting racial discrimination in Northern Ireland. This hasprovided protection for minority groups like the Chinese and Indian communities in

Northern Ireland. Another example would be our work to secure safeguards to

prevent the ill-treatment of detainees. Lobbying and campaigning arecritical to ensure that the government lives up to its commitment to internationalhuman rights law. Over the last few years our work centered on getting

I got involved in this kind of work in 1976 when I was twelve years old. A group of

people knocked on the door of our house and said, "Do you want to go on apeace march to demonstrate against the violence?" My older brother

and sister went and I said I would go with them. We marched every weekendin different parts of Northern Ireland and, in doing so, formed alocal group that brought together diverse people. The Peace



People won the Nobel Prize in 1977. With demonstrations drawingapproximately twenty to thirty thousand people, a popular movement developed. It wasexciting. A number of us went to a summer camp in Norway designed to bringtogether Catholics and Protestants from different backgrounds and locations throughoutNorthern Ireland. We had discussions about politics, about religion, about violence, andlife in Northern Ireland. We discussed nonviolence as well. At the summer camp, I met aNorwegian woman who came to work in Belfast after the summer camp. With the help

of an American, we formed a group called Youth for Peace.

About twenty of us organized a three-day fast on the steps of city hall tohighlight hunger around the world and to call for peace. We were all

sitting there and fasting for peace when a bomb suddenly went off a few streets away . It was discovered that the IRA had planted it in a car. It was pouringrain and we went around to see if there was anything we could do. Nobody had beenkilled, but there were a lot of passers by covered with glass from the windows. Glaziersarrived and life quickly returned to normal. It was impossible to see, it was so wet,

blood was dripping off the pavement, but life was proceeding as

normal, and yet this dreadful thing had just happened.

I had been learning about nonviolence, hearing what Gandhi and MartinLuther King were saying. It was wrong that people should mess up thelives of others for some political ideology, for a flag, over whoshould govern this particular place. That night, it became very clear to me

that violence w as inhum ane and that we didn't have the right touse it. In my family we were brought up with a strong sense of right and wrong, thatpeople were to be treated well and not abused. The sanctity and the preciousness of life

was emphasized.

In every case, the impact of the violence is terrible. In Northern Ireland,

people get categorized either as innocent victims or "other" victims. If youhaven't been involved in anything, you are an "innocent" victim. On the other hand, if you are in the IRA and you are out doing something and end up getting shot, you are not

categorized as innocent. In this case, there is a sense that you do not deserveany sympathy and, by extension, neither does your family . This is inspite of the fact that everyone's grief is the same.

There is a hierarchy of victimhood. If you are involved in politics, for

example, you are not considered innocent. Whenever somebody is killed in NorthernIreland, media interviews with the relatives are conducted. The first thing asked is,

"Was your husband involved in anything? Why would somebody havedone this?" People rush to say, "He was a very quiet person. He just lived for

his family. He wasn't involved." But if you are involved in public life,somehow a violent death seems to be understandable.



The w or st thing is apathy -to sit idly by in the faceof injustice and to do nothing about it. There is a real

responsibility to challenge things that are wrong. I believe that

nonviolent tactics are right and effective. Though nonviolence is a

backdoor approach to combating human rights abuses, it is both morally and

pragmatically right. If you believe that a greater world exists beyond this one,then it is more important from a larger standpoint to do the right thing rather than to be

effective or to survive. There is a bigger frame of reference.

I have been afraid a couple of times. When I was very young and we were going on thepeace marches, some of the marchers were attacked with bricks and bottles and a

number of people were beaten. At those times, I remember being frightened. WhenPat Finucane, a defense lawyer doing a lot of work on humanrights, was killed, it became clear that he had received threats beforehand and that there was official collusion by elements

within the police and army. I and other people working on humanrights were frightened. And on March 15, 1999,Rosemary Nelson, alawyer and member of the CAJ's board and a friend, was killed by

a bomb left under her car. That was truly terrible. But you can'tlive your life in fear and give people powerover you w ho w ant to create fear . At the end of the day, it

is very important that these people are not allowed to do that. It would be better to die early than to refrain from doing things because you are fearful

about the consequences.

- Kerry Kennedy, Speak Truth To Power, 2000President of Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights

* With my emphasis. - Theary C. Seng, CIVICUS Cambodia founding president

** Please contact us at CIVICUS Cambodia if your newspaper, website, Facebook etc. cancarry this series.

The RFK Center’s S p e a k T r u t h T o Po w e r (“Courage Without Borders”)

project in Cambodia is funded by The Charitable Foundation (Australia).

For more information, please visit: www.civicus-cam.org and

www.rfkcenter.org/sttp.

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