By Amanda Ferguson
BELFAST (Reuters) – Britain and Ireland agreed a new framework on Friday to address the legacy of decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland and replace a controversial British law that breached human rights and angered families of people killed in the “Troubles”.
The agreement fulfilled a pledge by Britain’s Labour government to scrap the previous Conservative government’s Legacy Act. A section of that law offered immunity from prosecution for ex-soldiers and militants who cooperate with a new investigative body – a provision that was ruled incompatible with human rights law.
The new framework will allow the resumption of inquests that were abruptly halted by the Legacy Act into cases from the conflict between Irish nationalist militants seeking a united Ireland, pro-British “loyalist” paramilitaries and the British military.
The 2023 law was opposed by all political parties in Northern Ireland, including pro-British and Irish nationalist groups, as well as the Irish government, which brought a legal challenge against Britain at the European Court of Human Rights.
WINNING FAMILIES’ CONFIDENCE ‘WILL TAKE TIME’
The plans will overhaul the independence and governance of a new investigative body that was criticised by victims’ families upon its establishment in 2023, and ensure it is capable of referring cases for potential prosecution, the two governments said in a statement.
It will also lift a prohibition on civil cases and establish a separate information recovery body, as envisioned in a 2014 UK-Irish agreement that was never implemented and that was overridden by the Legacy Act.
Irish Foreign Minister Simon Harris said in a statement that the framework can deliver on Ireland’s two tests of being human rights-compliant and securing the support of victims’ families if faithfully implemented. Winning the confidence of the families will take time, he added.
Dublin has said it will revisit its legal challenge against Britain if those tests are met.
The UK Labour government has sought to reset relations with Ireland that were strained over the Brexit process of Britain leaving the European Union.
The Conservative government had defended its previous unilateral approach by arguing that prosecutions linked to the events of up to 57 years ago were increasingly unlikely to lead to convictions and that it wanted to draw a line under the conflict.
While some trials have collapsed in recent years, the first former British soldier to be convicted of an offence since the peace deal was given a suspended sentence in 2023.
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Frances Kerry)
