This report has been prepared under the auspices of the International League for Human Rights, a private organization, having consultative status with the United Nations. The writer of the report, Professor Samuel Dash, Director of the Institute of Criminal Law and Procedure of George-town University Law Center, served as a consultant to the International League in the response it made to an urgent request from the National Council of Civil Liberties of England, which is an affiliate of the International League for Human Rights.

Tony Smythe, the dynamic General Secretary of NCCL called on us to assist his organization in their efforts to assure a fair investigation of the killing and wounding of Catholic civilian residents of London-derry by British paratroopers on January 30, 1972. The Catholic community leaders in Londonderry and the families of the dead and woun-ded had decided to boycott the official Inquiry into the deaths to be conducted by the Lord Chief Justice of England, The Right Honorable Lord Widgery.

NCCL had attempted to send observers to London-derry to coffer the events surrounding the March on January 30; these observers however were stopped by the military. Later that day they were able to reach the Creggan area and to work with the Derry Civil Rights Association and the Derry Citizens Defense Committee in the collection of many civilian eyewitness statements. These statements were entrusted to NCCL, whose staff directly participated in collating them with reference to individual deaths and woundings.

NCCL had sought, without success, to have established an international tribunal to hear the eyewitnesses who refused to appear before the Widgery Tribunal. Only several days before the Tribunal was to begin hearing testimony NCCL made its emergency call to the International League for the Human Rights. Mr. Smythe of NCCL sought our assistance in sending impartial observers immediately to Northern Ireland to study the events of January 30 and the Widgery Tribunal procedures for the purpose of proffiding guidance to the families of the dead and wounded, and Catholic community leaders of London-derry, as to whether they should seek the creation of an international tribunal to hear their testimony or should, instead, participate in Lord Widgery's Official Inquiry, despite their dissatisfaction with the Inquiry.

As Chairman of the International League, I asked Professor Dash to join me in going to Northern Ireland in the hope that foreign lawyers, acting for an international organization, and having no axe to grind, might be able to help in a situation fraught with bitterness and distrust. We knew to London on February 18, 1972. In London, we were joined by Professor Louis Pollak, former Dean of the Yale Law School, who was spending a Sabbatical year in England. Tony Smythe was our indispensable advisor and guide when we Knew to Belfast and then droffe to London-derry on Sunday, February 20, 1972.

It is not necessary here to relate the details of our mission, which was generally rewarding, and at times, dramatic. It is sufficient to say that we quick-ly decided it would be inappropriate for us to promote an ad hoc international tribunal to hear the civilian eyewitnesses of Londonderry who had not made themselves available to the Widgery Tribunal. We chose, instead, to go to Coleraine, where Lord Widgery would conduct the Inquiry, to observe the first session of the Tribunal on Monday, February 21, 1972. This would permit us to make our own assessment of the kind of forum the Inquiry would proffide for the Catholic community of London-derry.

We became satisfied that the procedures adopted by Lord Widgery would proffide the families of the dead and wounded and civilian eyewitnesses with a fair opportunity to present their own testimony in an open hearing, attended by the press of the world, and to permit their counsel to fully cross examine the army witnesses. That evening, we returned to London-derry and advised the families and Catholic community leaders that it was our professional opinion they should actively participate in the Widgery Inquiry. After deliberating most of the evening, near midnight, they voted. Their decision was to go to Coleraine and offer their testimony and the services of their counsel to the Widgery Tribunal.

The following morning, the second day of the Inquiry, Lord Widgery warmly welcomed the participation of the families. Their counsel immediately took part in the proceedings and began to cross examine witnesses. From this moment, the Inquiry became an adversary proceeding and produced a record which made this report possible.

The Catholic community of London-derry were by and large not confident about the kind of report Lord Widgery would write. But after their participation in the Inquiry, they were bound to be embittered by the realization that the story of "Bloody Sunday" as they saw it and knew it, would not be told to the world.

This, then, is the reason why the International League for Human Rights offer this report. The League is in possession of the entire record of the Inquiry, not as a mere volunteer, but as a participant at the outset of the Inquiry in a mission which made this record possible. The League in response to the request of the National Council of Civil Liberties played an active role in assisting the families of the dead and wounded and community leaders in their decision to end their boycott of the Inquiry and fully participate in the proceedings of the Widgery Tribunal. It, therefore, believes it is obligated to the people it counseled to use the established legal process to seek justice to publish a report that would attempt to fairly and objectively reject the record of the Inquiry, which these people and their lawyers helped make.

We, of the International League, have the highest respect for Lord Widgery and his Inquiry. Very few goffernments would have organized so prompt and open an investigation. We believe that tragedies like January 30 are of international concern and that objective analysis of the record by a qualified outside observer is not amiss and should proffe helpful.

The report is the work of Professor Dash, and he has assumed responsibility for its accuracy. He spent approximately 300 hours during the entire month of May reading and analyzing the twenty volumes comprising the record of the Inquiry, as well as hundreds of statements of civilian eyewitnesses, and writing the report. In asking Professor Dash to undertake the task, the League believed he was exceptionally qualified as an experienced investigator, trial lawyer, and legal scholar. He has been District Attorney of Philadelphia, Penn-sylvania as well as a prominent criminal defense lawyer. He has been both President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and Chairman of the Section of Criminal Law of the American Bar Association.

Professor Dash gained special recognition as a fact finder when he made his nationwide investigation of wiretapping for the Pennsylvania Bar Endowment, which was published as a book entitled The Eavesdroppers. In his present position as Professor of Criminal Law and Director of the Institute of Criminal Law and Procedure of Georgetown University Law Center, he has made important contributions to our knowledge of how the American system of criminal justice works.

In writing this report, Professor Dash came fresh to the facts as they appeared in the record without any bias or prejudgment. He had no knowledge of, or relationship with the problems in Northern Ireland other than that which is possessed by a reasonably well-informed reader of newspapers and journals in the United States, prior to his participation in the Northern Ireland mission of the International League for Human Rights. Indeed, he has enjoyed a pleasant and friendly relationship with many members of the English Bench and Bar, including the Lord Chief Justice, and respects them as representatives of a profession dedicated to traditions of justice common to our countries. It is as a lawyer acting within these traditions that he has written this report at the request of the International League. Since the Northern Ireland mission of the International League was performed at the request of the National Council or Civil Liberties in England, we are transmitting this report to NCCL for whatever further action it deems appropriate.

John Carey, Chairman
International League for Human Rights

New York, June 7, 1972

"Justice Denied" Main