Tribunals of Inquiry in Northern Ireland :: essays research papers

IntroductionMany countries have faced situations in which their citizens demand accountability for injustices or atrocities move by their own domestic governments, which are in violation of their human rights. The manner in which varying nations have provided for and acknowledged these facts, on their various unexclusive platforms, have been both controversial and diverse. These problems tend not to fade into obscurity if left unaddressed. History has dictated that struggle for truth has been adopted by consequent generations, who demand responsibility from their own government in power as, in many cases, the events will have occurred at the hands of a preceding government. The short-lived of time has illustrated that the quest for truth does not dissipate but can cause emotions to escalate and heighten the resolve of the aggrieved parties. Commentators suggest that establishing truth about the gone is a precondition for preventing the recurrence of abuses in the future. This report submits, in extension to this theory, that it is an essential ingredient in the desired passage towards restoration in general confidence and synonymous to the concept of justice in this modern legal world. The focus of this question is specifically the model of Tribunal of Inquiry which is governed by incision 1 of the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act 1921 , which is the legislation used to handle inquiries involving an official element, and truth commissions, the alternative model that has been internationally adopted, largely as a endpoint of military agitation or liberation coups. This paper will also touch upon inquiries hosted in other countries. Public inquiries themselves are rare and, this paper suggests, lots resisted events, indeed Northern Ireland has borne witness to just three such inquiries under the aforementioned Act. These were the Scarman Inquiry in 1969, followed by the Widgery Inquiry in 1972, , the unsatisfactory publication of which gave rise to the Saville Inquiry in 1998. Countries such as South Africa, Sierra Leone and Argentina, among others, have had their human rights redress distinctively characterized by the construction of truth commissions . Whether this reference mechanism would be more conducive to the pursuit of truth, in matters of vast public concern within the context of Northern Ireland, is a matter for this paper to explore. The Character and Necessity of InquiriesWalsh states that an inquiry of this nature can be established under the Act where it is resolved by both Houses of Parliament