Establishment parties vote to renew Offences Against the State Acts

On top of massive electoral success this week, Sinn Féin has made another leap in progressing rights for all by publishing a Dáil Bill seeking to repeal that familiar piece of emergency legislation known as the Offences Against the State Acts 1939-1998.

This legislation has been around for 65 years and has given disproportionate powers to the Gardaí, damaging, rather than protecting, civil rights in most cases.

The Repeal Bill was sponsored by Sinn Féin's five TDs on the same morning that a government motion was brought before the Dáil on the continuance of the Act. Sinn Féin proposed a counter motion to the Government's motion to continue the Acts.

The purpose of the Sinn Féin Bill is to point out that this emergency legislation is no longer warranted under the current climate of change, especially given that the peace process and the IRA cessation are in their tenth year and given the conclusion of the Good Friday Agreement six years ago. The Repeal Bill also states that the operation of this emergency legislation has had a "corrosive effect" on human rights and civil liberties and that this type of repressive legislation does not enhance democracy of the security of the people.

The Good Friday Agreement commits the Dublin government to further strengthening the protection of human rights and to normalise security arrangements in this state by dispensing with the Offences Against the State Acts 1939 -1985, as circumstances permit. Sinn Féin opposed the Offences Against the State Act 1998 when it was originally introduced, just as historically Sinn Féin has opposed repressive legislation in all its forms and the violations of human rights and civil liberties as well as the miscarriages of justice that have resulted.

Such legislation does nothing to make society more secure. What it does is fuel cycles of repression and resistance and this effect is replicated in similar cases around the world.

Since 1998, not only has the government failed to reform the emergency legislation — it has done the exact opposite by further expanding emergency powers by amending the OASA in 1998. This week, the government asked the House to renew this act without offering any justification, without any analysis of the effectiveness of the legislation, without any proper debate and having, at the last minute almost, produced what Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh referred to as a "pathetic little report" to try to somehow justify these draconian measures.

Showing contempt for equality or justice, Minister McDowell did not even appear in the House for the debate on Wednesday, nor did the Taoiseach. As Ó Snodaigh in his address emphasised "it is high time the Government took this issue and their commitments to the Good Friday Agreement seriously".

Since 1939, emergency legislation has been introduced and passed rapidly in the wake of tragedy and facilitated by the promise that the provisions were both temporary and not designed for widespread use. Yet the OASA have operated almost exclusively outside of actual emergency situations and have also been widely abused.

Ó Snodaigh further pointed out in his speech to the House that "the powers the OASA give to the Garda Special Branch have turned it into a political police force which has systematically harassed citizens engaged in open, legal and democratic political activity as well as citizens with no political involvement of any kind."

Joe Higgins, Socialist Party TD, referred to the OASA as "draconian in the extreme" and rightly asked why should we trust this government with such draconian powers, given that they allowed water cannon to be used for the first time ever in this state to suppress protestors on May Day.

Dan Boyle of the Green Party also spoke out against the continuing emergency legislation, commenting that of the 169 uses of the legislation, the so-called report on it failed to reveal how many citizens are affected by the section which refers to 'guilt by association'. He said that people have a right to know how many people have been victimised by these powers.

Ó Snodaigh asked the government and all TDs in the House to endorse and support Sinn Féin's Repeal Bill, adding that they did so "not on the basis that you support Sinn Féin or the republican position but on the basis that you support the Good Friday Agreement that was endorsed by 94% of people in this state, knowing that the repeal of repressive laws is a rightful expectation of those who support the Agreement's full implementation".

Needless to say, his words fell on deaf ears and the establishment parties duly went about voting with the government's motion, going through the motions without giving any real thought or debate as to why it was necessary to retain these repressive laws.

Junior Minister of State Frank Fahey, in his weak defence of the government, claimed that the institutions were still under suspension and that progress was slow, adding the irrelevance of the EU elections, which had "interrupted" progress. But far more progress would be made if the Government could take a step towards ridding the state of Acts more worthy of a dictatorship.

A certain western leader, not known for a progressive attitude, was brought to mind with Frank Fahey's final words that one had to be either in support of it [OASA] or not, that there was "no middle ground".

Hopefully by the time this odious legislation comes up for renewal again next year, things may have changed somewhat for the better. In the meantime, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, at the time of going to press, is the first NGO to come out in favour of Sinn Féin's Repeal Bill, saying that repeal of the OASA is overdue and that its provisions breach numerous human rights standards, as proved by cases before the European Court of Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee.

Their view is that these provisions ensure that Ireland remains in breach of its international human rights obligations and is failing to move forward its commitments under the Good Friday Agreement.