“The UK government’s ongoing attempt to pass the Northern Ireland Legacy Bill, including its recent introduction of amendments, ignores the many warnings that this legislation would violate the UK’s international obligations and put victims’ rights at risk”, said the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, ahead of the start of a crucial stage of the Bill’s scrutiny in the House of Lords tomorrow.
“I have repeatedly warned that the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill would undermine the human rights of victims, as well as truth seeking, reconciliation and justice efforts.* Serious concerns have also been expressed by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Special Rapporteurs, national human rights institutions, parliamentary committees and civil society organisations, including victims’ groups.
Despite this, the UK government has decided to go ahead with the Bill in a way that does not recognise Northern Ireland’s violent past or honours the suffering of victims. While the government has recently published amendments, these leave the fundamental problems with the Bill intact, such as the conditional immunity scheme that would result in impunity for serious human rights violations, the unilateral shutting down of avenues to justice for victims, and questions about the ability of the Independent Commission for Information Recovery to deliver outcomes that would meet human rights standards.
In addition, several judgments related to the legacy of the Troubles have been waiting to be executed for twenty years or more. The government’s latest amendments were published the day after the Committee of Ministers concluded its most recent meeting on the supervision of execution of judgments of the Court. As a result, it could not consider the impact of these amendments for the implementation process, and with its next examination to take place in September, it may not have this opportunity again before the Bill is adopted. However, it is my view that adopting the Bill would make the prospect of meeting the requirements of the Court’s case law more remote than ever.”
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* In September 2021, the Commissioner wrote to the UK government about the proposed changes to its approach to legacy cases. She discussed the Legacy Bill with victims and the UK government during her country visit in June-July 2022, and subsequently set out her concerns in a submission to the Committee of Ministers (August 2022) and to the UK government in her report following the country visit (December 2022).