Paul Murphy: Stop Non-Jury Courts, Defend Fair Trials
Paul Murphy challenges the annual renewal of the Special Criminal Court, saying it effectively abolishes the right to a fair trial. He criticises the government and large parts of the opposition, including Sinn Féin, for supporting non-jury courts and urges transparency through yearly votes.
Paul Murphy describes the yearly renewal as a farce and condemns what he calls the nodding through of emergency powers that remove jury trials. He highlights that domestic and international human rights organisations, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and the UN oppose the Special Criminal Court.
Murphy disputes the government claim that non-jury courts are the only alternative and notes that the human-rights experts on the Independent Review Group opposed permanent non-jury courts. He singles out Sinn Féin and other opposition parties for accepting slight reform as an excuse to avoid full opposition.
Murphy warns these powers tend to creep beyond criminals to target protesters and striking workers, and he invokes past cases to argue non-jury convictions can imprison the innocent. He calls for a roll-call vote every year so the public can see where TDs stand on the basic right to a jury trial.
Viewers will see a direct appeal for civil liberties, a critique of political compromise, and a call to defend the principle that fair trials by a jury are a cornerstone of democratic justice.
Context and criticism
Paul Murphy describes the yearly renewal as a farce and condemns what he calls the nodding through of emergency powers that remove jury trials. He highlights that domestic and international human rights organisations, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and the UN oppose the Special Criminal Court.
Alternatives and political choices
Murphy disputes the government claim that non-jury courts are the only alternative and notes that the human-rights experts on the Independent Review Group opposed permanent non-jury courts. He singles out Sinn Féin and other opposition parties for accepting slight reform as an excuse to avoid full opposition.
Democratic stakes and consequences
Murphy warns these powers tend to creep beyond criminals to target protesters and striking workers, and he invokes past cases to argue non-jury convictions can imprison the innocent. He calls for a roll-call vote every year so the public can see where TDs stand on the basic right to a jury trial.
What to watch for
Viewers will see a direct appeal for civil liberties, a critique of political compromise, and a call to defend the principle that fair trials by a jury are a cornerstone of democratic justice.
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Transcript
Thanks very much Clare Plantier. Here we go again with one of these annual farces that we have in this place but this one's pretty important. It's the nodding through of abolishing the fundamental human right to a fair trial by the government and the vast majority of the opposition. Incredible that we do this on a yearly basis. Shamefully I think it again is going to include Sinn Féin. For years Sinn Féin have been using the promise of slight reform of this Diploc Court as an excuse for not opposing it after decades of correctly being against it. How much longer can they keep that up? The government has been saying that they need these so-called emergency powers for 54 years now so presumably this can go on forever. Most of the rest of the opposition including those on the left also engage every year in this, the lowest form of respectability politics. Afraid that they're going to look bad if they defend the basic right to a fair trial by a jury of your peers. Even though every domestic and international human rights organization from the Irish Council of Civil Liberties to Amnesty International, the state's own Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, the United Nations, unanimously oppose the Special Criminal Court. The point of civil liberties is not so much to defend the rights of people you agree with but to defend the rights of those you don't. The Minister said last year we'd be here again in a year's time. Are we going to be here again next year? How much longer is this farce going to continue? The Minister has already told us that the only alternative to the Special Criminal Court is a slightly reformed and rebranded non-jury court and shamefully the vast majority of the opposition including Sinn Féin are going along with that too and supporting the idea of making non-jury courts permanent forever. The minority of the Independent Review Group, which not surprisingly was the minority made up of the human rights experts on it, rightly saw no need for special non-jury courts. The vast majority of democracies around the world see no need for them either. That's why I urge for a vote to be called on these motions every single year. People have a right to know where the members of this house stand on fundamental questions of civil liberties. Do TDs believe that everyone has the right to a fair trial by a jury of their peers? Or do they support convictions in secret courts by a trio of judges based on the say-so of a senior Garda? If that had been the case with the seven Jobstown not guilty defendants we'd all still be in prison right now. These types of draconian powers are always creeping. One day used against criminals it sounds reasonable to come down on, the next used against water charges protesters, Palestine protesters, striking workers, whoever else is wrongly categorized as criminals or terrorists. You just look at the draconian measures imposed on peaceful protesters classified as terrorists in Britain right now and think exactly the same thing can happen here and the special criminal courts can be used as a part of that cracking down on civil liberties.