An international human rights body has urged the British government to amend a controversial Northern Ireland Troubles Bill, warning it could violate people’s rights and prolong families’ search for answers about the deaths of their loved ones.
A Council of Europe meeting of ministers of the 46 member states expressed “serious concern” about Britain’s proposals to introduce a new body to review killings during the Troubles that would have the power to grant immunity to those who co-operate with it.
In a decision published on Friday, the council stated there was “minimal support for, and public confidence” in the Bill, which is strongly opposed across communities in Northern Ireland due to concerns that it could shut down the prospect of full investigations into deaths and avenues to justice.
The council warned the Bill could breach the European Convention on Human Rights, noting there had been a “lack of formal public consultation” on it. The body “urged the authorities to amend the Bill, if it is progressed, to allay concerns about compatibility with the European Convention”.
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The previous British government introduced the Bill following an election pledge by then-prime minister Boris Johnson to protect British soldiers from “vexatious” legal actions following campaigning by veterans to be protected from prosecution.
The council examined the Bill, which is making its way through the UK parliament, because it is relevant to a group of decisions by the European Court of Human Rights, known as the McKerr group of cases.
These rulings relate to the inadequacy of investigations into killings in Northern Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s, “either during security force operations or in circumstances giving rise to suspicion of collusion in their deaths by security force personnel”.
The council has the role of monitoring whether member states implement such rulings by the court, and it previously rebuked Britain for failing to ensure full investigation of the cases, which include the 1989 murder of the Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.
In its decision on Friday, the council noted that long-delayed inquests had just started to produce results and warned the proposed Bill could interrupt this progress.
“The new legislation will prevent new civil claims from being brought,” the decision read, expressing “serious concern about the proposal to terminate pending inquests that have not reached substantive hearings, bearing in mind the progress finally being made in those inquests”.
Last year, an inquest into the Ballymurphy massacre found that 10 people killed in a British army operation in west Belfast in 1971 were innocent, in a result hailed as a landmark for victims’ families.
The council “urged the authorities to reconsider this proposal and allow the limited number of pending legacy inquests to conclude, to avoid further delay for families”.
Prior to advancing the Bill further, the British government should “devote sufficient time” to engaging with all stakeholders to develop the “widest possible public trust and confidence”, the decision states.
To ensure that the Bill is compatible with human rights law, it urged the British government to ensure the body it intends to set up to review Troubles-era killings is “independent and seen to be independent”, by limiting the role of the secretary of state for Northern Ireland in its establishment and oversight.
It should also ensure agreements to make disclosures to the body “unambiguously require full disclosure”, referring to the concerns of victims’ groups that there is no veracity test for those who co-operate to be granted immunity.
The British government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
