Criminal Law Branch
Northern Ireland Office
Massey House
Stoney Road
BELFAST
BT4 3SX


Cc: Jim Alford, Head of Central Management Unit, Central Services Division, NIO
Joan Harbison, Equality Commission
Evelyn Collins, Equality Commission
Nigel Williams, NICCY
Paddy Sloan, Human Rights Commission


By: Letter and E- mail


22nd June 2005


Dear Sir/Madam


Re:            Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2005


Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the above consultation. I attach our detailed response which is made on behalf of Children’s Law Centre and Include Youth, which I hope you find useful. I am also enclosing a copy of the Children’s Law Centre’s response to “Measures to Tackle Anti-Social Behaviour” for ease of reference and a copy of our letter of 8 June in respect of the discharge of the NIO’s s75 Northern Ireland Act 1998 duties as they relate to the draft legislation and the policy which informed it, in respect of which we received no reply. For ease of reference I enclose the relevant sections from Mr Gil-Robles, Human Rights Commissioner, Council of Europe report of 8 June 2005.
We appreciate the extension afforded to the Children’s Law Centre to respond to this draft legislation. We would be obliged if you would furnish us with details as to how analysis of the responses will be undertaken and would be grateful if you would indicate when it is intended to advise the Minister in respect of your analysis of responses.
It will be apparent from our letter of 8 June that we are concerned to ensure that the NIO’s statutory duty in respect of s75 have been discharged in respect of this draft legislation. As we have received no reply to our letter to date we are uncertain if the requirements of s75 have been complied with in this instance. It would be our contention that if they have not and in the light of the Equality Commission’s Investigation Report approved by the Equality Commission on 27 April 2005 the NIO should desist from progressing this legislation until their s75 duty has been fully discharged.
Further we note that leave was granted today in an application for Judicial Review by Peter Neil challenging the legality of the Anti-Social Behaviour (Northern Ireland) Order 2004. We would submit that pending the judgement of the Court as to the status of the 2004 Order it would be inappropriate to proceed to legislate in respect of Articles 2 to 8 of the current draft legislation.
In compliance with Section 8 and Section 10(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 we look forward to receiving the information requested above and a response to our letter of 8 June 2005, within 20 working days.

Yours sincerely


Paddy Kelly-DIRECTOR

Koulla Yiasouma-DIRECTOR - Include Youth