Stop Violence Against Women
Human Rights Defender
Rosemary Nelson
On March 15, 1999, Rosemary Nelson, a 40-year-old lawyer, human rights defender, and mother of three children, was killed by a car bomb in Lurgan, Northern Ireland, after having been subjected to frequent and menacing death threats, including threats from police officers. Nelson began her law practice as a solicitor serving the needs of the local population in Lurgan. In an often tense and divided town, she distinguished herself by serving as a trusted and respected advocate for clients drawn from both the Catholic and Protestant communities. Among Nelson's clients were women who suffered domestic abuse, persons accused under Northern Ireland's emergency laws and survivors of police abuses or their families.
Nelson was a board member of the Belfast-based Committee for the Administration of Justice, a human rights organization of international stature. She came to realize that to advocate effectively for her clients, she necessarily had to be an advocate for human rights in Northern Ireland. Among her clients was the family of Robert Hamill, a young Catholic man who was kicked to death by a mob of about 30 loyalists while police officers sat in a police jeep about 20 feet away. Nelson also grew increasingly vocal in calling for an independent and impartial inquiry into the murder of Belfast solicitor Patrick Finucane in 1989 under circumstances strongly suggesting collusion between official security forces and illegal paramilitary organizations.
Because of her commitment to exposing and eradicating the human rights violations perpetrated against her clients, Nelson became the target of frequent threats from both officials and paramilitary organizations. Government authorities failed to take Rosemary Nelson's fears seriously, to take a human rights organizations' complaints seriously and, ultimately, to protect her life. These authorities have also failed to meet their obligations under international standards to carry out an independent, thorough and impartial inquiry into her death, addressing her complaints against harassment and intimidation as well as the disturbing evidence of security force collusion in her murder.
