Ulster justice system 'institutionally racist'

Northern Ireland was branded the “race hate capital of Europe” after a string of attacks against immigrants in 2004.

Police figures released in May this year showed a rise in racially motivated attacks, including pipe bombs, bricks hurled through windows and assaults. During 2005-06, the police service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) recorded 936 racial incidents, more than twice the number of incidents reported two years earlier.
Mr McVeigh was commissioned by the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities (Nicem) to examine how well the criminal justice system was coping with the rise in racist attacks.
Speaking today at the launch of his report in Belfast, Mr McVeigh told the Press Association: “The scale of the violence is frightening enough but the failure of different elements in criminal justice to deal effectively with that violence is just as problematic.”
He said the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland had not made the progress on race issues that elsewhere had been a legacy of Sir William Macpherson’s report following the murder of Stephen Lawrence, the black teenager killed in south London in 1993. The Macpherson report, published in 1999, branded the police “institutionally racist”, which many regard as a watershed moment that helped catalyse improvements.
Mr McVeigh said today: “We need a Macpherson-style review into racism and criminal justice to put this right. Piecemeal changes will not be enough.”
Stephen Lawrence’s mother Doreen Lawrence, a human rights campaigner, was at today’s launch of Mr McVeigh’s report, which is entitled The Next Stephen Lawrence? - Racist Violence and Criminal Justice in Northern Ireland.
Ms Lawrence said: “People think that we have had the inquiry into Stephen’s murder and so everything’s fine, but it’s not. There are a lot of people still complaining about racism attacks. In Britain things have improved since the Macpherson report but there is still a long way to go. It is important the people of Northern Ireland look to learn the lesson of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry.”
Jolena Flett, Nicem’s racial harassment adviser, told Guardian Unlimited: “The report shows that the experience which victims have with the criminal justice system is patchy.
“The police might do a good investigation but then the prosecuting authorities will appear not to be interested or a case will come to court and victims are disappointed by the judiciary.”
The Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland declined to comment on the report but it had a representative at today’s launch and is understood to be considering its findings.
The Observer reported yesterday that a survey found the percentage of people in Northern Ireland who admitted being prejudiced on the grounds of racism, or xenophobic, had more than doubled since the paramilitary ceasefires of 1994, rising from 11% to 25%.
Protestants were found to be more likely to be racist and xenophobic than Catholics, according to the 2005 Northern Ireland Life and Times survey.
Loyalist paramilitaries are believed to be behind a significant proportion of racist incidents. Nicem says that the British National party (BNP) is very active in the province and some loyalist paramilitaries have an interest in the BNP.
In recent days in Northern Ireland there has been a spate of attacks against people from eastern Europe. On Saturday a Latvian was taken to hospital with serious eye injuries after being attacked in a racially motivated assault in Lisburn, Co Antrim.
Yesterday a house lived in by a number of Poles was damaged in an arson attack that police suspected was also racially motivated.