Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission is a body which was provided for in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 and which was formally established under the Northern Ireland Act 1998 on 1 March 1999. It comprised a full-time Chief Commissioner and nine part-time Commissioners, all of whom were appointed initially for a three-year period. The first Chief Commissioner was Professor Brice Dickson. The other first Commissioners were Ms Christine Bell. Mrs Margaret-Ann Dinsmore QC, Mr Tom Donnelly MBE JP DL, Rev Harold Good OBE, Professor Tom Hadden, Ms Angela Hegarty, Ms Patricia Kelly, Ms Iñez McCormack, and Mr Frank McGuinness. As a body independent of government the work of the NIHRC includes matters such as promoting and protecting human rights within Northern Ireland. In addition it is also involved in advising the British government in bringing forward a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.