Assessing Damage, Urging Action the central authorities. Repressive laws that were hawked as counter-terrorist legislation played no minor part in strengthening the resistance and fuelling disaffection against the state in the face of mass arrests, detention, abduction and extra-judicial killings and disappearances.” 73 Witnesses to the Hearings also, on occasion, gave constructive guidance as to how to avoid or limit the counter-productive effects of counter-terrorism measures. A consistent message to the Panel was that effective accountability over the police and other security agencies would have minimised the adverse effects of the counter-terrorist effort. At the Hearing in Northern Ireland, for example, the Panel was informed that the transition to peace was in part mediated by the introduction of an array of human rights safeguards, for example: • an independent complaints body vested with extensive legal powers to effectively oversee civilian complaints against the police (replacing a weak predecessor which, despite its name, was not genuinely independent); • strong civic oversight of the police and a range of measures to ensure recruitment from across different communities; • new legislation, codes of conduct, and training for the police; • audio and video recording of all police interrogations; • changes to the human rights legal framework (incorporation into domestic law of the European Convention of Human Rights, and discussion of a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland to “constitutionalise” human rights); • stronger equality legislation; • reforms to the judiciary and prosecution service; • creation of domestic bodies to oversee and guide government on human rights and equality measures; • integration of human rights and equality considerations into all government policies (including youth provision, economic programmes and police use of informers, to give three very different examples).74 Witnesses averred that if some or all of these safeguards had existed earlier, a lot of the violations might have been avoided. In commenting on the belated introduction of audio and video recording of police interrogations, a submission to the Panel noted “their earlier introduction would have meant that detainees were not subject 73 Written submission by Advocate K.S. Ratnavale, Governor, Centre for Human Rights and Development, Sri Lanka, EJP South Asia Hearing. 74 See CAJ, final submission, p. 10. 45