The Alliance party has hit out at US investment officials who called for an overhaul of the human rights commission, and told the government to "ignore their complaints".
Alliance human rights spokesman Stephen Farry was responding to a statement by two major US investment officials. His response came as the UUP claimed the officials were "misguided".
The City of New York comptroller William Thompson and State of New York comptroller Alan Hevesi raised the issue with the British and Irish governments.
The two elected officials control investment funds worth more than $180 billion – with more than $15 billion of this currently invested in corporations doing business in the north.
They did not threaten a withdrawal of the investment, but in a letter to the governments they signalled that it could be jeopardised by claims the commission is undermining fair employment protections. The comptrollers noted that their offices "operate under statutory guidelines that mandate the promotion of fair employment".
They called for the resignation of commission chief Brice Dickson and a complete reorganisation of the organisation.
Mr Farry said he believed the comptrollers were "misinformed", adding: "I am completely astounded that so many people are going hysterical at the concept that people should be able to define their own identity, rather than have their identify artificially constructed by the state.
"Why do some people continue to believe that the only approach to fair employment monitoring is to pigeon-hole everyone into groups and to trample over their human rights to define who they really are?"
The UUP's Esmond Birnie said: "I would respectfully suggest that the Americans reflect more closely on the human rights and equality experience in their own country."
