There has been mixed reaction in the North to a United Nations committee report calling for a ban on plastic bullets, the closure of Castlereagh and other detention centres and the "reconstruction" of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
The report by the UN Committee Against Torture has been welcomed by human rights organisations, but unionist politicians have expressed strong reservations.
The influential 10-member committee of human rights experts was established under the UN Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which came into force in 1987. The committee is elected by the states which have signed the convention. It monitors progress by the signatories towards full implementation of the convention.
In its report on the United Kingdom the committee said the continuation of the state of emergency in Northern Ireland was hindering the convention's implementation.
Its recommendations included:
The closure of detention centres, particularly Castlereagh, at the earliest opportunity.
The abolition of the use of plastic bullet rounds as a means of riot control.
Reconstruction of the Royal Ulster Constabulary so that it more closely represents the cultural realities of Northern Ireland. This should continue to be associated with an extensive programme of re-education for members of the RUC directed at the objectives of the peace accord and the best methods of modern police practices.
The peace process and the Belfast Agreement were described as "positive aspects" of the situation. But under the heading "Subjects of Concern" it included "the rules of evidence in Northern Ireland that admit confessions of suspected terrorists upon a lower test than in ordinary cases and in any event permits the admission of derivative evidence even if the confession is excluded".
The report was welcomed by the Belfast-based Committee on the Administration of Justice, which called on the British government to implement its recommendations immediately.
"The Good Friday agreement offers us an opportunity to build a new peaceful society based on respect for human rights," the CAJ's legal officer, Mr Paul Mageean, said.
The United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets welcomed the call to ban the weapon, adding that 17 people, including eight children, had been killed in the North by plastic bullets.
But Mr Ian Paisley Jnr of the Democratic Unionist Party said: "This is another scurrilous and pernicious, evil, nasty little report from a committee that ought to know an awful lot better.
"Let's face it, there are people being tortured in Northern Ireland, there are people who have been punished, there are people who face inhuman and degrading treatment - they are the victims of the terrorists, and here we have a police force that's doing its very best against all the odds, faced with intolerable and oppressive circumstances and they then get lambasted for doing their job and for doing their job well," Mr Paisley told UTV.
Mr Dermot Nesbitt of the Ulster Unionist Party pointed out that if there was no terrorist threat, there would be no need for detention centres and other measures. There was a lot of intimidation by paramilitaries, and the potential for terrorist bombings remained.
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, said the report was "further evidence of the logic of Sinn Fein's demand that the RUC be disbanded".
The Workers' Party said the British government should act on the report's findings without delay, "particularly the banning of plastic bullets".