The Sentence Review Commission was established by the Northern Ireland (Sentences) Act 1998 (c. 35) and was co- chaired by Brian Currin, a

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

human rights law International human rights law (IHRL) is the body of international law designed to promote human rights on social, regional, and domestic levels. As a form of international law, international human rights law is primarily made up of treaties, ag ...

yer, and Sir John Blelloch, a retired senior

Northern Ireland Office The Northern Ireland Office (NIO; , Ulster-Scots: ''Norlin Airlann Oaffis'') is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for handling Northern Ireland affairs. The NIO is led by the Secretary of S ...

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

. The Sentence Review Commissioners in Northern Ireland were appointed to oversee and regulate the early release of certain prisoners convicted during the period of civil unrest known as

the Troubles The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed t ...

. It was established by the

Belfast Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement ( or ; or ) is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April (Good Friday) 1998 that ended most of the violence of the Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland since the la ...

which allowed for up to 500

loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...

and republican prisoners sentenced before 10 April 1998 to be released by 28 July 2000. This decision to release prisoners without serving their full sentences provoked moral outrage. Many people, especially unionists were aggrieved at this part of the Agreement, although it was seen as necessary to appease the

paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

organisations, namely the

Provisional IRA The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...

Ulster Volunteer Force The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is an Ulster loyalism, Ulster loyalist paramilitary group based in Northern Ireland. Formed in 1965, it first emerged in 1966. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former Royal Ulster Rifles soldier from North ...

and the

Ulster Defence Association The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 as an umbrella group for various loyalist groups and undertook an armed campaign of almost 24 years as one of t ...

. To be eligible for early release, the prisoner had to be affiliated to a paramilitary organisation that had established, and maintained, "a complete and unequivocal cease-fire". The Sentence Review Commission decided which prisoners should be released early and whether any were a threat to society and could re-offend. Each prisoner was released on a licence that could be revoked if the Commissioners and

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland The secretary of state for Northern Ireland (; ), also referred to as Northern Ireland Secretary or SoSNI, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the Northern Ireland Office. The offi ...

decided that they had rejoined a paramilitary organisation or supported paramilitary activity.

List of commissioners

Current commissioners are: *Clodagh McGrory (chairperson) *Adrian Grounds *Prof John Jackson *Timothy Thorne *Anne Grimes *Micaela Greenwood Previous commissioners were: *Sir John Blelloch (Co-chairman) *David Bolton (Resigned to deal with Omagh bombing, replaced by Dr Duncan Morrow) *Silvia Casale *Peter Curran * Brian Currin (Co-chairman) *Ian Dunbar *Mary Gilpin *Duncan Morrow (Appointed 9 September 1998) *Donal McFerran (Appointed in October 2002) *Dave Wall (1998-2000)

References

{{Reflist

Sources

''BBC NI - Schools - Agreement - Policing - Prisoners''
''BBC NI''. Accessed 3 November 2007
''BBC NI - CAJ Report July/August 1998''
''BBC NI''. Accessed 3 November 2007

''Office of Public Sector Information''. Accessed 3 November 2007

''Sentence Review Commission''. Accessed 3 November 2007

''Sentence Review Commission''. Accessed 3 November 2007 Northern Ireland peace process Law of Northern Ireland