There are not a lot of things that all political parties in Ireland — both in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland — agree on. One of the very rare, if not only, examples of unity was the opposition to the British government’s The Northern Ireland Troubles Legacy and Reconciliation bill. According to the Irish Times this legislation is:
“ . . . a complete change in how the UK government deals with Troubles-era cases. Current methods of addressing cases through the judicial system — criminal and civil investigations and inquests — will be stopped and replaced with inquiries carried out by a new body, the Independent Commission for Reconciliation, and Information Recovery (ICRIR), which has the power to offer conditional amnesties for perpetrators. Rather than criminal proceedings, the commission’s focus will be on information recovery; it will carry out reviews of deaths and other “harmful conduct” caused by the Troubles and produce reports on its findings.”
The Legacy Bill was not only opposed by all Irish political parties but also by many human rights groups in the United States and in Europe as well as by the United Nations.
According to the Belfast Telegraph, “It [the Legacy Bill] also brought a halt to civil litigation and inquests not completed by the cut-off date of May The aim of the Legacy Bill according to the British government that drove it through Parliament last fall was to draw a line under Troubles era violence. Those who opposed the Bill argue that it denies victims to seek redress through the judicial system. Opponents also argue that the Legacy Bill also neatly ends the possibility of learning more about British government complicity in violence during the Troubles.
During the recent general election campaign, the Labour party promised to repeal the Legacy Bill. In the King’s Speech, in which the new Labour government outlined its program for government, King Charles III said that “In consultation with all parties, measures will be brought forward to begin the process of repealing and replacing the Northern Ireland Troubles Legacy and Reconciliation Act 2023.”
It is the position of the new Labour government that they cannot fully repeal the Legacy Bill without having something to replace it with. Other have disputed this logic but the consensus seems to be that while not perfect, the Labour government move is a very positive move. Perhaps Amnesty International’s Grainne Teggart put it best when she said: “Today is an important step towards overturning an atrocious attack on rights.
Northern Irish political parties reacted positively to the King’s Speech with the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Gavin Robinson saying that his party welcomed the “decisive move to repeal this unconscionable legislation.” Relatives for Justice, a prominent Northern Irish human rights group, described the new Labour government’s move on the Legacy Bill as “encouraging.”
Sinn Féin MP John Finucane, whose father was killed by violence during the Troubles, said that the Labour government’s commitment to repealing the Legacy Bill was “a welcome commitment [to repeal and replace the Act], and we will engage with them on the full details of their approach in the days ahead.”
Replacing the Legacy Bill will be a difficult process. There is much work to be done. One of the most important tasks will be building a better relationship between the British government and all the political parties in Ireland, both north and south. This will not be an easy task after years of a conservative government. There are some encouraging signs that the new Labour Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is moving to reset the United Kingdom’s relationship with the Republic of Ireland.
In many ways, these are dark times with war raging in both Ukraine and Gaza. There are not a lot of positive developments out there. The concrete steps we have seen this past week towards scraping the Legacy Bill are a victory for human rights the world could really use right now.
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