11293 report 19 - CAIN - University of Ulster

HistoryThe Policing Board appointed two human-rights advisors, Keir Starmer QC, and Jane Gordon, inFebruary of 2003 with responsibility for developing and conducting a programme to monitor thehuman rights performance of the Police Service.They did so in a report entitled Monitoring PSNICompliance with the Human Rights Act 1998 (December 2003). Following its exhaustivemethodology, the Policing Board has published two human-rights annual reports (April 2005 andSeptember 2006).These reports constitute the most complete, substantive, on-going monitoring ofhuman rights in a police service that has ever been done.They represent the gold standard inhuman-rights evaluation of police. At the request of the Policing Board, Starmer and Gordon havealso published two reports on the policing of three controversial parades (2005, 2006).ThePolicing Board has provided all necessary support for these annual reviews, including a survey ofpolice officers and civilian staff. The Police Service, to its great credit, has permitted the humanrights advisors unrestricted access to documentary material as well as to police operations.30