Brian Currin

Brian Currin (born 20 September 1950), practiced law in Pretoria from 1977 to 1987, specializing in labour law and civil and human rights. He is qualified as an attorney in South Africa and now works in mediation and institutional transformation. In 1994 he was appointed by South Africa President Nelson Mandela to chair a Prison Audit Committee and was subsequently involved in the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In 1987 he founded the National Directorate of Lawyers for Human Rights which he headed for eight years. He has worked in Sri Lanka, Rwanda and the Middle East on political transformation. Mr Currin now co-chairs the Sentence Review Commission in Northern Ireland, which decides on the early release of prisoners who have committed terrorism-related offences. In 2000, he became an independent mediator in the Drumcree parading dispute and said that he hoped he could achieve a breakthrough in the mediation role because he was a completely independent outsider. But he quit his role in December 2001, saying that as Portadown Orangemen had withdrawn from dialogue, he was "unable to take the process any further".He said the Orangemen had blamed their decision a lack of trust in the nationalist Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition, which opposes their proposed Drumcree parade route.

References

* [http://www.sentencereview.org.uk/members.htm#Pen%20Pictures "Pen Pictures"] "Sentence Review Commission" Accessed 3 November 2007.
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/2093775.stm " Drumcree Dispute - Key figures"] "BBC News NI" Accessed 3 November 2007
* [http://www.saha.org.za/collections.htm?collections/AL3065.htm "Brian Currin - profile"] "South Africa History Archive" Accessed 3 November 2007