Kent policing expert Dr Vicky Conway spoke of the importance of embedding human rights standards as working rules within the Irish police force at the 12th annual Human Rights Conference in Dublin.
Dr Conway, a senior lecturer at Kent Law School, was speaking at the ‘Criminal Justice and Human Rights in Ireland’ conference . Attendees included the Director General of the Law Society of Ireland, Ken Murphy, the Chief Commissioner (designate) of the Irish Human Rights & Equality Commission, Emily Logan, and Ireland’s Minister for Justice and Equality, Frances Fitzgerald.
The aim of the conference was to examine recent developments in the area of criminal justice in the light of Irish human rights law. Topics covered included police accountability and possible reform as well as social issues surrounding Irish penal policy.
Dr Conway’s talk focused on police accountability and how human rights standards could enhance its provision. As well as discussing the work that has already been done in respect of human rights in Irish policing, she addressed emerging proposals for reform of accountability.
Dr Conway said: ‘The engagement with human rights law must move beyond adherence to standards and box ticking. We need those within the police service to buy in to the idea that this is how they should go about their job. If it is simply seen as yet another layer of bureaucracy, another regulation for which they can be disciplined, then it will not embed and become an underlying value.
‘We want police to see that human rights standards should be working rules, something that will benefit how they do their job, not inhibit them.’
The full text of Dr Conway’s speech is available to read on the Law Society of Ireland’s website.
Earlier this year Dr Conway addressed a consultation seminar on justice reform in Ireland, organised by the Irish Minister for Justice, at which she spoke of the need for an independent Commission on Policing.
Dr Conway’s research expertise in policing, miscarriages of justice and criminology is in frequent demand by Irish media. She is the author of a number of books, including Policing Twentieth Century Ireland: A History of an Garda Síochána and The Blue Wall of Silence: The Morris Tribunal and Police Ac-countability in the Republic of Ireland. For more information about her research and publications, visit Dr Conway’s staff profile page.