Human Rights – Slugger O'Toole

The long and winding road to dealing with the past stretches ahead at Westminster. Will it turn out to be a dead end?

Brian Walker on November 28, 2022, 5:00 pm | Readers 3292

All Northern Ireland parties and groups including victims are united on one thing. They are opposed to the UK government’s NI Troubles, (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill. Nevertheless the Bill began its long passage to become law – or not –in the House of Lords last Wednesday. The Lords debate presents a good opportunity to air the issues in one place in this lengthy post. A vote will eventually be held on whether to recommend scrapping the Bill entirely or heavily …

Now we’ve got into an even bigger mess over human rights, courtesy of guess who?

Brian Walker on June 24, 2022, 12:59 pm | Readers 2451

If ever it needed reminding, the importance of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and its court in Strasbourg was underlined by the comments of the former Lord Chief Justice to MPs the other day. As it stands Sir Declan Morgan feared that Westminster’s latest attempt at a Legacy Bill would be struck down by the Court as in basic violation of human rights. But there is an even more fundamental dimension to this. ECHR rights are embedded in …

Former chief justice’s frustrations boil over at deadlock over the Legacy Bill. He tells MPs : “people need a kick up the bottom.”

Brian Walker on June 23, 2022, 2:10 pm | Readers 2174

The former Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan allowed his frustrations to boil over at a hearing of the Commons NI Committee yesterday examining the government’s Legacy bill. The earlier draft Bill dating back 12 years for a with a powerful Historical Investigations Unit at its core which had been finally endorsed by most local parties was abruptly scrapped by the British government and replaced by a radical new version for a de facto amnesty. Not that they admit to …

A southern truth and reconciliation process meets with inevitable northern scepticism

Brian Walker on November 30, 2021, 2:02 pm | Readers 2887

A brave attempt to break the deadlock between the British government’s proposal for a Troubles amnesty and the refusal of all other parties and groups to contemplate it received an airing in a webinar last Friday hosted by UCD academics. (TRP) is a group of southern independent great and good.. Their webinar was chaired by an Irish High Court Judge Mr Justice Richard Humphries, so presumably they have influence . They support the implementation of a ‘Truth Recovery and Reconciliation …

The comprehensive case for rejecting general amnesty without further legal process.

Brian Walker on September 12, 2021, 4:36 pm | Readers 1513

Scene outside the Law Courts in Belfast during the Ballymurphy Inquest The Model Bill team of NI academics led by Profs Kieran Mc Evoy and Louise Mallinder and the Committee for the Administration of Justice has delivered a scathing analysis of the UK Government’s proposal for an amnesty or statute of limitations, which they’ve entitled “Addressing the Legacy of Northern Ireland’s Past”. The team had previously produced a report for making the Stormont House Agreement work effectively. At its core, …

The genie of amnesty is out of the bottle. Not the last word, but the beginning of the end.

Brian Walker on July 19, 2021, 3:34 pm | Readers 2086

The British government’s announcement of a statute of limitations has not only united all parties against them. It has also exposed the weaknesses of everybody’s positions including their own. All other parties are insisting on a role for justice while admitting there’s very little hope left of achieving it. As justice for victims and relatives is unobtainable in most cases, what is the point of holding out for years for the remote chance of a trial? After decades of deadlock …

This time, it’s the Troubles legacy. Northern Ireland opinion on a key issue, even when substantially in agreement, is being overruled by Johnson’s Conservatives

Brian Walker on July 14, 2021, 11:31 am | Readers 5550

The devil will be in the detail but as a example of news management in advance, the UK Government’s plans for a Troubles amnesty could hardly be worse for opinion in Northern Ireland Veterans who served in Northern Ireland are finally set to be freed from the threat of prosecution. In a victory for the Daily Mail, a planned statute of limitations will today be announced covering all incidents during the Troubles. The move by Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis is …

What next after the interim report on Irish referendums?

Brian Walker on December 7, 2020, 6:31 pm | Readers 3073

A surprising initiative It’s a remarkable fact about the working group on Unification Referendums that it took an initiative led by London academics to start the process of setting rules for a possible outcome that has been the Irish obsession of centuries. The initiative was in part a reproach as to how politics particularly but not only in Northern Ireland is serving the public, partly an acknowledgement of the complexity of the issues where intensity of feeling can prevent people …

Northern Ireland Human Rights Festival, 7th – 11th December 2020…

Soapbox on December 3, 2020, 12:07 pm | Readers 590

The festival will run from the 7th-11th December and continues to offer a wide variety of more than 30 free online events and on-demand content focussed on aspects of human rights from home and abroad. 2020 has been an unbelievably challenging year for everyone across the world. The Covid-19 global pandemic has created a massive public health emergency, extensive loss of life and has also exposed and deepened many inequalities in our society. Rights continue to connect us and to …

It’s strictly dancing up to the Brexit deadline. Meanwhile “the border in the Irish Sea” takes shape in Northern Ireland

Brian Walker on October 20, 2020, 3:13 pm | Readers 3138

Archbishops’ letter image. FT The off- on- off again dance around the final stages of Brexit negotiations is taking place against a mounting clamour of confusion and anger over the crazy politics including the real implications of the threatened No Deal, about which the UK government postures so insouciantly. UK in a Changing Europe think tank says their modelling with the LSE of the impact of a no-deal Brexit suggests the total cost to the UK economy over the longer …

‘A Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland is overdue’

Paul Gosling on July 13, 2020, 9:02 am | Readers 3405

A Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland is overdue and would protect the interests and concerns of all the population, insists Colin Harvey, professor of human rights at Queen’s University, Belfast. He was talking in the latest Forward Together podcast from the Holywell Trust. The Good Friday Agreement provided the expectation that there would be a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland that would safeguard citizens’ rights. And a committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly is, more than 20 years …

The curious case of the Department of Health

Sarah Creighton on June 30, 2020, 9:31 am | Readers 2315

Abortion has been legal in Northern Ireland for over a year now. Under the Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2020, terminations up to 12 weeks are now lawful. Abortions after 12 weeks are heavily restricted. Terminations are available up to 24 weeks if there is a risk to the mental or physical health of the woman. There is no time limit where there is a fatal fetal abnormality. With the law firmly in place, it was expected that the commissioning of …

Action not another inquiry is needed to tackle the Troubles’ legacy as well as the legacy of slavery

Brian Walker on June 16, 2020, 12:20 pm | Readers 1036

Fintan O’Toole has turned his attention to support a new proposal for dealing with the legacy. While well intentioned, this one has a flavour of rummaging in the bottom drawer for an idea. The proposal (which I have signed, along with many others) is a product of widespread consultation with victims, with combatants from all sides and with people in politics and academia. The nub of it is conditional amnesty: a system in which those with personal knowledge of violent …

Removing statues is a revolutionary gesture. Is that what’s needed?

Brian Walker on June 9, 2020, 4:52 pm | Readers 5698

Queen Victoria being removed from the front of the Dail Fergus on Monday nailed it. In the current atmosphere the statue of Oliver Cromwell speaks for itself. Perched in front of Westminster Hall the Victorians who erected it were celebrating the victory of Parliament over the royal tyrant Charles 1. But even leaving aside the massacres of Drogheda and Wexford, this distorts Cromwell’s record. He sent the troops in to expel Parliament not once but twice and instead ruled …

Abortion as an individual human right or by the will of a majority? The NI Assembly wants to “send a signal”

Brian Walker on June 2, 2020, 3:47 pm | Readers 1709

Heidi Crowter, anti-abortion campaigner Do the new regulations permitting abortion in Northern Ireland extend to foetal abnormalties like Down’s syndrome or not? Behind the question is a constitutional argument over whether Westminster had the moral right to enact an abortion law over the heads, even when they were in suspension. But although the DUP and SF seem to be in broad agreement, they seem to be content to win two separate majorities by designation rather than go for an overall …

Gerry Adams’ “illegal detention” Supreme Court ruling needs correction by Parliament to prevent hundreds of compensation claims

Brian Walker on June 2, 2020, 1:44 pm | Readers 2670

Gerry Adams’ victory in obtaining a Supreme Court ruling against the legality of his detention without trial followed by his escape from the Maze in 1975 has produced serious opposition within the establishment. The ruling rests on a technicality with potentially wide implications, that the interim custody order made against him hadn’t been signed personally by the secretary of state Willie Whitelaw. To a lay person this ruling seems more than slightly bonkers; but its defenders will argue that the …

Victory for the de Souzas and for Irish citizens’ immigration rights: a battle that should never have needed to be fought

Brian Walker on May 15, 2020, 11:29 am | Readers 2692

Yet another example of ignorance of Northern Ireland affairs in different parts of the UK government. Derry born Emma de Souza has won her three year battle to allow her American husband Jake to live with her, an Irish citizen in Northern Ireland, without having to renounce her birthright as a British citizen which she doesn’t want to exercise. She wants to bring him in under EU therefore Irish not UK immigration laws. Her victory is a triumph of principle …

The suspension of Northern Ireland’s new abortion regulations under pressure from “pro-life” opinion is fake news of the UK government’s making

Brian Walker on May 9, 2020, 11:41 am | Readers 2377

The Irish News story on 8 May THE British government last night withdrew controversial abortion regulations for Northern Ireland before they could be put to the vote in Parliament next week. It means that the regulations put forward by secretary of state Brandon Lewis at the end of March will not now apply. It is understood that the strength of the challenges faced by the proposed legislation, in particular at a Lords select committee, led the government to pull the …

Emma De Souza: a solution?

Sarah Creighton on April 29, 2020, 9:54 am | Readers 3676

As we drift through another week in lockdown, it’s hard to believe that there’s anything else to discuss apart from Coronavirus. Thankfully, Northern Ireland’s unique brand of identity politics stops for no pandemic. Cast your mind back to last year and the case of Emma De Souza. I wrote about it here. Mrs De Souza’s case concerns Article 1(vi) of the British-Irish Agreement. That section states that the two governments recognise the right of: ‘…..the people of Northern Ireland to …

Update on abortion. Stormont and the medical establishment will obey the law

Brian Walker on April 9, 2020, 9:29 pm | Readers 933

According to BBC NI, Stormont has today complied with UK law. Women will not have to travel by ferry to GB for the procedure after all. Medical professionals in NI can now “terminate pregnancies lawfully”, the Department of Health has said. Last month, abortion laws changed to permit terminations up to 12 weeks, but this had not been put into practice. Some of NI’s health trusts had been told by the department not to proceed with temporary plans. The department has now said …