The Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, is to have talks with a UN special rapporteur about a report he compiled which alleges collusion between members of the security forces and paramilitaries in the North.
The meeting between Dr Mowlam and Mr Param Cumara swamy is expected to include discussion on whether the British government would consider agreeing to his call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate what he called "prima-facie evidence" of security force collusion in the murder in 1989 of Mr Pat Finucane, a Catholic solicitor. Mr Finucane was shot dead at his Belfast home in an attack admitted by the Ulster Freedom Fighters.
Welcoming the report last night, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, said he had instructed Ireland's Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Mr Mahon Hayes, to underline "the great importance of the special rapporteur's work" at yesterday's meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, yesterday praised as "courageous" and "outspoken" the murdered Northern Ireland solicitor, Ms Rosemary Nelson, as the UN began hearings into the allegations of police harassment of lawyers in the North.
Ms Nelson had been scheduled to attend today's UN Human Rights Commission's discussion of a report on lack of respect for the rights of lawyers. Instead, friends and colleagues stood for a minute's silence at a memorial service in Geneva and heard calls for an inquiry into her death which would be independent of the RUC.
Mr Cumaraswamy has also expressed concern about the investigation into the murder of Ms Nelson. He claimed that the RUC had shown complete indifference to complaints from lawyers - including Ms Nelson - about threats from within the force. He accused the Chief Constable of allowing the situation to "deteriorate".
Mr Cumaraswamy also said that, given that Ms Nelson had lodged several complaints against the RUC and had no confidence in the force, there was a "nagging feeling" that RUC involvement in the investigation of her murder could taint it.
Rejecting the allegations that his force had been indifferent to complaints by defence lawyers, RUC Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan said: "I totally refute any notion that we are indifferent about complaints. When these complaints surfaced, I immediately went to the Law Society to open a channel of communication. I have had what I would describe as four very useful meetings with the Law Society, during which two complaints have been discussed."
Meanwhile, the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists has called on the British government to carry out a "credible investigation" into the murder of Ms Nelson. The ICJ also wants a judicial inquiry into the "wider issue of intimidation of defence lawyers by the police in Northern Ireland".
The ICJ's demands were conveyed in a submission to the UNHRC on the independence of judges and lawyers internationally. It is understood that the ICJ learnt of threats to, or harassment of, some 40 solicitors in Northern Ireland. Ms Nelson was said to have been the only one to go public with her complaints.
The report by the ICJ stated: "The killing of Rosemary Nelson in Northern Ireland highlights the fate that many defence lawyers face throughout the world. The ICJ has called on the [British] government to ensure that a credible investigation into this murder be carried out to ensure professionalism and de-politicisation and to also seize this sad occasion and order a judicial inquiry into the wider issue of intimidation of defence lawyers by the police in Northern Ireland."