Fergal Mawe is a qualified solicitor and Co-director of Ceartas - Irish Lawyers for Human Rights. He works in the Legal Industrial Relations and Equality section of the Irish National Teachers Organisation having previously been in the areas of child trafficking and private practice.
In April 2013 Ceartas filed a complaint to the International Association of Prosecutors (IAP) against one of its members, Bahraini Attorney General Dr Al – Buainain. The IAP is an international organisation of prosecutors committed to setting and raising the public prosecution standards of professional conduct and ethics for prosecutors worldwide by promoting the rule of law, fairness, impartiality, human rights and international co-operation to combat crime. Ceartas’ complaint was submitted through the IAP complaints protocol and detailed how the Attorney General, as director of the Office of Public Prosecutions in Bahrain oversaw a systematic pattern of human rights abuses and breaches of basic judicial principles at a public prosecution level, whilst at the same time occupying a seat on the Executive Committee of the IAP. In September 2013 Ceartas was informed that the complaint was not upheld and that the IAP also decided to re-elect him to the Executive Committee.
Ceartas and several other human rights organisations have since written to the IAP and objected to its decision given the bona fide and widely backed findings in the complaint. Objections were also made about the re-election of the Attorney General to the Executive Committee on the basis that it is irreconcilable with the public prosecution standards it seeks to promote. The actions taken by the IAP justifiably call into question the sincerity it holds for its human rights objectives, particularly given that its constitutional objective is to “protect human rights as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”. To this end a request was also made to the IAP for the reasons of the decision, as well as for details of the appeals procedures.
Of further concern is that according to IAP President, Mr James Hamilton [former Irish Director of Public Prosecution] all organisational members of the IAP are expected to commit to the IAP Standards of Professional Conduct for Prosecutors and that any nominee to the Executive Committee must be able to show a commitment to them. Ceartas disputes that these standards are upheld and further maintains that members are accepted to the IAP regardless of their backgrounds. President Hamilton – upon receiving the Ceartas complaint – stated that the IAP “don’t have any procedure for carrying out inspections on people before they become members” and that some members “would be regarded as controversial”.
Concern at the IAP’s decision is also justified given that the human rights abuses referred to in the complaint are common knowledge to the extent that the day after the IAP’s decision, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling for the Bahraini judiciary to act in “accordance with international human rights standards” and to “end judicial harassment”. Another point of concern is the strategic role the IAP has in international affairs, as it works in partnership with such organisations as the United Nations Commission on Drugs and Crime, EUROJUST and the OECD while also providing advice on human rights to state bodies like the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. However, what is most regrettable is that the IAP’s decision has been used as an acknowledgement of support of the public prosecution standards being administered in Bahrain by the international community of public prosecutors, as demonstrated by the Bahrain State Media.
Ceartas therefore stands over its original finding that the Attorney General must be removed from the organisation due to the incompatibility of his actions as head of the Office of Public Prosecution in Bahrain and the human rights objectives of the IAP. Ceartas has sought an appeal of the IAP’s decision.
Click here to read Ceartas' previous guest article in the Bulletin about this issue.