Amnesty International has urged people to vote in favour of deleting references to the death penalty in the Constitution and setting up an International Criminal Court (ICC).
The development manager of Amnesty's Irish section yesterday urged all political parties to prioritise the setting up of the ICC, which he said was a key step to protecting human rights.
Mr Jim Loughran said the war crime tribunals set up following the conflicts in Rwanda and ex-Yugoslavia were ad hoc. The Hague-based tribunal investigating war crimes in ex-Yugoslavia ran out of money within six months, he said. "You can set up tribunals or courts but in the absence of political will to implement high standards and protect people and bring them to justice it will be useless," he said.
Mr Loughran said Amnesty welcomed the referendum to delete all references to the death penalty from the Constitution.
"The simple fact is that the death penalty is not a deterrent. It is applied largely against the poor, marginalised and those excluded from the system," he said.