Ireland's OWN: Women Freedom Fighters

Ireland's OWN:
Women Freedom Fighters

Rosemary Nelson:
The Life and Death of a Human Rights Defender
—by Míchealín Daugherty

Rosemary Nelson was born in 1959 near the railway tracks that bisect Lurgan. During a childhood marked by the struggle for civil rights, she had undergone surgery to remove a birthmark which left one side of her face paralysed, the skin unnaturally stretched, one eye pulled down.

Rosemary studied for her law degree at Queen's University, Belfast. After working for other solicitors for a number of years, She became the first woman to open a solicitor's practice in Lurgan in 1989.

Rosemary Nelson quickly became an internationally known and respected human rights lawyer because of her dedication to her clients, often victims of violence and human rights violations in the North of Ireland. Rosemary sought basic due process for her clients and legal protections for the community she represented. She frequently represented suspects detained for questioning about politically motivated offences. Most of her clients were arrested under emergency laws and held in specially designed holding centers, and were often interviewed without access to an attorney.

One of a small number of solicitors brave enough to take up such sensitive cases, she was frequently the target of harassment, death threats and intimidation. Rosemary represented Colin Duffy, the Lurgan Republican who was successful in an appeal against a 1993 murder conviction. Charges against him of murdering two police constables in Lurgan were also dropped. She also represented the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition and the Hamill family, whose son, Robert, was beaten to death by a loyalist mob in Portadown.

Rosemary’s life had been threatened by members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) on a number of occasions, primarily via her clients. In his 1998 report, Param Cumaraswamy, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, paid special attention to these death threats and, in a televised interview, suggested that Rosemary's life could be in particular danger. Cumaraswamy's report made numerous specific recommendations to the British government concerning police threats against lawyers — none of which were implemented.

Rosemary’s car. In September 1998, Rosemary was invited to testify before the US Congress, at the House International Relations Committee's investigation into the human rights situation in Northern Ireland. In her testimony, she explained she had received "several death threats against myself and members of my family. I have also received threatening telephone calls and letters. Although I have tried to ignore these threats inevitably I have had to take account of the possible consequences for my family and for my staff."

The weekend immediately prior to her death marked the tenth 'birthday' of her practice. Sometime during the night of 14th March 1999, an explosive device was placed under Rosemary’s car. At approximately 12.40pm on Monday the bomb exploded as the 40-year-old mother of three braked at the bottom of the street where she lived.

The bomb tore her legs off and ripped through her abdomen. Her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah, was on lunch break in her school yard, less than 50 yards away. Rosemary's sister, a teacher at the same school, spoke with Rosemary as firefighters cut through the twisted metal that pinioned the victim.

Rosemary would live two hours longer. She left behind a devastated family and a community in mourning; she was wife to Paul Nelson and a mother to Gavin (13), Christopher (11) and Sarah (8).

Justice has not prevailed in the case Rosemary Nelson. Two controversies continue to haunt the investigation. The first concerns allegations that members of the RUC had routinely intimidated and issued death threats against the Rosemary; the second is allegations by residents in Rosemary’s community that the attack took place against the backdrop of unprecedented security activity in the weeks and days leading up to the murder in the area surrounding the Nelson home.

Human rights groups around the world have expressed profound outrage and sadness at the killing. Colin Port, a British police officer who heads the investigation of Rosemary’s murder, has said that his work is far from complete and his team still has many areas to examine. The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, has stated disappointment that no one had yet been prosecuted, although 60 police are working on the case.

As of May 2001, Colin Port said that his investigation was active and ongoing and his team had interviewed more than 10,000 people, taken over 2,000 statements and followed 8,000 lines of enquiry.

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