The Gazette 1967/71

NORTHERN IRELAND IN INTERNATIONAL LAW

ensure human rights in the North, whether the Six Counties are governed from Stormont or directly from Westminster. 2. The Irish Government has proposed that an International Police Force, whether an Anglo- Irish force or a United Nations force, should be sent to the North to control the situation. Even if the British Government were disposed to accede to this proposal, which it is un likely to do, it would of necessity be but a short-term solution. If a United Nations force were sent, it is unlikely that the majo rity of members of the United Nations would pay for it. 3. The idea of a Condominium which involves the exercise of joint sovereignty over an area by two or more States, is rejected as creat ing formidable problems. 4. It would be possible to envisage, from the British point of view, a new, shorter and more defensible border for Northern Ireland in the form of a new homogeneous partition, comprising the counties of Down and An trim, and parts of Armagh and Derry, where there would be Unionist majorities. This new partition is not deemed practicable as it would seem to require the compulsory re moval of Unionist minorities in Fermanagh and Tyrone, and of Nationalist minorities elsewhere, which would tend to create fric tion. 5. The cession of the Six Counties to the Re public is the only solution which in the long run will satisfy Irish aspirations. In such an event, an attempt should be made to reconcile the Unionists, preferably by allowing them to keep their subordinate legislature in Stor mont, subject to water-tight guarantees against all kinds of discrimination. The Irish Government would have the disadvantage of having to subsidise a high proportion of un employment, and social security contribu tions at the same rate as in Britain, in the Six Counties. It would obviously be imprac ticable to add the Six Counties to the Re public by way of sale for a definite sum of money, as this would be an indirect form of trading in human beings. If the cession is to be made by mutual agreement between the British and Irish Governments, it will ob viously require a high degree of statesman ship on all sides; whether this is in sight in the foreseeable future remains to be seen. 6. It would theoretically be possible for the British Government to transfer its sovereignty over Northern Ireland to the Republic, but to rent it back, say for a period of years by

There are two interesting articles on Northern Ireland from the standpoint of International Law in The Tablet of 4th October 1969 and of llth October 1969, by Mr. D. H. Johnson, Professor of International Law in the University of London. Prima jade, the Irish question is typically re garded as a single, continuing and virtually in soluble problem. No mention is made of Article 2 of the Constitution which grandiloquently declares that "the national territory consists of the whole island of Ireland, its islands and its territorial seas", and the existence of the border as a problem is not discussed. The Cameron Report confirmed the well-docu mented existence of discrimination in the North but it is stressed that the International Conven tion on the elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination passed by the United Nations in 1966, but not yet ratified, does not apply to the Six Counties. As regards breaches of the European Convention of Human Rights perpetrated by the existence of the Special Powers Acts, one can only conclude that Dr. Johnson's view as to the im portance as to how this Act is applied in practice appears to be narrow, as the Cameron Report has clearly shown that the Special Powers Act violates at least 4 Articles of the Convention and the Hunt Report has called for the abolition of this Act. It would in fact have been more appropriate for the Irish Government to arraign the British Government before the effective Commission and the Court of European Human Rights, but the difficulty was that the Irish Government had attempted to defend similar excessive and un necessary permanent emergency provisions in the Lawless case. Another legal alternative open to the Irish Government would be to refer the ques tion of the boundary dispute to the International Court of Justice in the Hague, but it is unlikely that the Government would admit that it has but a limited sovereignity in this matter, particularly in view of the unfortunate history of the Boundary Commission in 1924-25. The omens would thus not seem to be too favourable to Ireland to assert its case successfully before an International As sembly or Tribunal. What are the alternatives then? Professor Johnson discusses the following possible solutions: 1. The Maintenance of the status quo is rejected as it is realised that it provokes a source of grievance in the Republic and amongst the Nationalist minority in the North and it would become progressively more difficult to

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