Channel 4 News presenter and journalist Jon Snow yesterday paid tribute to the work of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) as it launched its 2015 report.

Mr Snow was the keynote speaker at the launch event, delivering a speech on human rights and the media, covering “El Salvador to Sri Lanka, via Northern Ireland and Iraq”.

Speaking afterwards, Mr Snow said of the NIHRC report: “This is a remarkable document, speaking as it does to the over-arching role that respect for human rights plays in consolidating the peace process in Northern Ireland. Much of what is in this report provides genuine optimism for he future.

“The Commission’s work provides robust cement to the work of political and civil society in bringing about the great changes that have occurred in Northern Ireland.

“As a journalist who spent considerable time reporting the Troubles in the seventies and eighties, to read this report of the Human Rights Commission is both uplifting and reassuring. There is a transparency about both the achievements and the challenges of these present times.”

He added: “For an institution that has been in existence for less than two decades - in the aftermath of such division and violence - I pay tribute to the extraordinary resilience, and continuing work,of the Commission and its staff.”

The NIHRC’s annual report is available from the NIHRC website.