The Gazette 1971

In any case, the report says, judges should have regular medical examinations : "Any tests would have to allow for the fact that failing power could be almost imperceptible even though nonetheless real. A common result of arteriosclerosis is loss of memory; even though th is may be crucial, particularly in a trial judge, the fact that it may be intermittent might make it hard to detect." Many of these proposed reforms rest on the com- mittee's initial recommendation that solicitors as well as barristers should be entitled to become judges, and academic lawyers to become appeal judges. The new move in this direction which is sanctioned in the Courts Act is considered too conservative.

Revival of this bitter controversy between the two sides of the profession is one cause of the division over the report on the Council of Justice. But equally, many members feel strongly that even to suggest judicial reforms implies criticism, which will weaken public confidence in the judiciary. The committee which wrote the report was chaired by Mr. Peter Webster, Q.C. Among its members were another Q.C., Mr. Lewis Hawser, and four solicitors, Mr. Peter Martin, Mr. Philip Kimber, Mr. Denis Garrett and Mr. Rex Church. The Sunday Times (24th October 1971)

Human —IRI SH S INCER I TY CHALLENGED

Rights Laws Left

Unratified discussed, or in any way dealt with at the U.N.—save for such efforts which U. Thant made on his own initiative. There just was no mechanism for this pur- pose, which was not subject to the veto of the major powers. "It is the smaller and less powerful nations which have most to gain from a strong, welborganised and effective U.N. It is their best protection from the oppression and domination of the major powers. It is regrettable, but true, that the major powers do not hesitate to try to impose their will on the smaller and poorer nations whenever it suits their particular interest or ambition. "In this respect there is little to choose between the various major powers. "We in Ireland should participate much more acti- vely in the work of the U.N., particularly in the field of human rights. We should do so as a small.nation with a sense of our international responsibility. We have the experience and the tradition to enable us to give a lead in matters relating to the protection of human rights. The promotion of the protection of minorities and of human rights at the U.N. would also assist us in putting our own house in order. "If we envisage seriously the reunification of our country we must build into our legal and constitu- tional system, safeguards that will give effective protec- tion to rights of the minority. This will certainly involve some constitutional and legislative changes. Such chan- ges should be made in the light of the internationally- recognised laws for the protection of human rights. "It is regrettable, but true, that our Government has a bad record at the U.N. Accordingly, we are in a somewhat invidious position when we run to the U.N. to seek assistance in regard to discrimination in Northern Ireland or in regard to the violations of human rights by British forces in Northern Ireland. It is not clear whether this is due to Government policy, to obstruc- tion by departmental officials or to the somnolent inertia of our bureaucracy. "On 21 December 1965 the General Assembly of the U.N. unanimously adopted by 106 votes for, none

Ireland's failure to ratify human rights conventions and to participate in the U.N. on human rights issues cast doubts on our sincerity when we appeal loudly to the U.N. to intervene to protect civil liberties in Northern Ireland. This point was made yesterday by Mr. Sean MacBride, S.C., chairman of the Irish United Nations Association. He was speaking at a meeting of the Association at the Tailor's Hall, Back lane, Dublin, to mark United Nations Day and the International Year to combat Racism and Racial Discrimination. "It is fitting that on U.N. Day we should take stock of the role of the U.N. and of our own role at the U.N.," Mr. MacBride said. "I know it is easy to criticise the U.N. for what it has not done; 'however, it must be remembered that the U.N. can only act and make progress to the extent to which it is encouraged or allowed to do so by govern- ments. The role of the U.N. Associations throughout the world should be to create a public opinion that will influence governments so that they in turn will permit the U.N. to progress further and more rapidly. "It is to the credit of the U.N. that we have escaped so far from having a thermo-nuclear war; the gap between the last two world wars was only twenty-five years; for thirty-seven years we have escaped a world war. Unfortunately, however, we have had many regi- onal wars. The India-Pakistan war, the Middle East war, the Korean war and the Indo-China war. We are lucky that these wars have not, despite the efforts of the participants involved, developed into worldwide conflicts. One of the principal tasks of the U.N. will be to provide machinery that can be used to anticipate conflicts of this nature, and where they do occur, that will provide automatic, fact-finding, conciliation and arbitration machinery. Strange as it may seem, there is no such mechanism in the U.N. structure; yet it is the mechanism most generally resorted to in commercial and domestic conflicts. It is extraordinary, but unfortu- nately a fact that at no stage has the Vietnam was been

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