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July 19, 2007

You know it's thesis season when your spoon scrapes bottom in the coffee tin!

Here at the Centre, theses for the L.L.M. programmes are due at the end of the summer. (The Centre offers LL.M. programmes in International Human Rights Law and International Peace Support Operations and has a Cross-Border Programme in Human Rights Law (LL.M.) and Human Rights and Criminal Justice (MSSc/LL.M.), in conjunction with Queens University of Belfast.) When I first arrived and asked students about their programme, how their coursework went and how things were wrapping up, even thesis topics seemed up in the air. But now, on this side of summer's midpoint, I guess deadlines are looming a lot closer! Some students have returned to their homes (not only all over Ireland but also all across the world, from Minnesota to Germany and Iran) to work on their papers, while others have stayed in Galway and pop into the Centre every now and then to slog away (and caf up). The Ph.D. students, who are at varying stages of their dissertation work, also seemed to have increased the intensity of their work. I have a hard time imagining taking on such a momentous, self-motivated project, which makes me question whether I'm quite cut out for that kind of academic work...

As for my current projects, I'm working on a recent assignment the Centre landed from An Garda Síochána, the Irish police. In September, faculty from the Centre will head to the Garda College in Tipperary to conduct a human rights training course for Garda superintendents. For one of my first projects earlier in the summer, I helped out with the Centre's proposal for the course. Now that we've been notified that we've landed the job (the Gardai's relationship with Amnesty has been a bit testy of late, apparently), I'm helping to outline the five-day tutorial.

The Gardai have given us a basic outline for topics they'd like to see covered on each day:

• Day 1. Overview of human rights standards as applicable to policing in Ireland
• Day 2. Human rights and operational policing
• Day 3. Human rights at a corporate level
• Day 4. An Garda Síochána as a human rights employer
• Day 5. Human rights audits

Several ongoing developments in Ireland have had major implications for policing. For one thing, developments in the Northern Ireland peace process means that the risk to the State from domestic subversive organisations is at its lowest level for many years. Also, the changing nature (particularly the increased diversity) of Irish society has brought many new issues to community relations and internal workforce operations. Also, changes in the legislative framework, both from international treaties and in domestic law (particularly the adoption of the 2003 European Convention of Human Rights Act), have fuelled An Garda Síochána's recent prioritising of human rights audits and action plans.

Some interesting facts about the Gardai: they're unarmed and quite popular with the general populace.

One major point of interest for everyone is the Morris Tribunal (www.morristribunal .ie/), established in 2002 to investigate allegations of police corruption in County Donegal, one of the more thinly-populated and less tourist-frequented areas of Ireland. Gardai have been accused of planting evidence, covering up crimes, changing official statements, and intimidating witnesses in relation to the 1996 death of a local businessman (nasty habits picked up from deep ties with British actors in Northern Ireland, my supervisor summed up – less than jokingly?). Tribunal findings have highlighted a pattern of insubordination, lack of discipline, and serious structural issues within the police organisation.

Taking on human rights training should be a neat way for the Gardai to win some PR points, I expect. But the organisation's recent audit and action plan also show a concerted effort to tackle operative and internal human rights issues, which I find fascinating.