Rosemary Nelson

Rosemary Nelson (d. 15 March 1999) was a prominent human rights lawyer from Northern Ireland.

Related Topics:
15 March - 1999 - Human rights - Northern Ireland

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Nelson obtained her law degree at Queen's University, Belfast. She worked with other solicitors for a number of years before opening her own practice. As a result of her defence work, representing clients in a number of high profile cases (including defending a client accused of murdering two Royal Ulster Constabulary officers), she stated that she had received death threats from members of the RUC.

Related Topics:
Queen's University - Belfast - Royal Ulster Constabulary

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She also represented the Garvaghy Road residents' coalition in nearby Portadown in its long-running and often violent standoff against the Orange Order.

Related Topics:
Garvaghy Road - Portadown - Orange Order

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Many of her clients claimed that RUC officers had threatened her through them several times. In 1998, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Param Curamaswamy, noted these threats in his annual report, and stated in a television interview that he believed her life could be in danger. He made recommendations to the British government concerning threats from police against lawyers, which were not acted upon. Later that year, Nelson testified before a committee of the United States Congress investigating human rights in Northern Ireland, confirming that death threats had been made against her and her three children.

Related Topics:
United Nations - British government - United States Congress - Northern Ireland

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Nelson was killed by a car bomb outside her home in Lurgan, County Armagh, in 1999. A loyalist paramilitary group calling itself the "Red Hand Defenders" claimed responsibility for the killing.

Related Topics:
Lurgan - County Armagh - Loyalist - Paramilitary - Red Hand Defenders

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The inquiry into her murder opened at the Craigavon Civic Centre in County Armagh in April 2005.

Related Topics:
Craigavon - 2005

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