Ireland launches legal action over UK efforts to block Troubles prosecutions
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Ireland is to launch legal action against the UK over its controversial new laws to provide immunity for Troubles-related offences.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin confirmed that the Government would launch the inter-State case, arguing that the UK’s laws are incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act, which passed into law earlier this year, has faced widespread criticism, from political parties, victims groups and the Irish Government.
The bill itself can provide limited amnesties for people who engage in a new body, known as the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR), and will stop existing criminal, civil and inquest inquiries into acts committed during the Troubles.
Mr Martin said that the Government reached the decision to take the case after “much thought and careful consideration”, adding that the UK Government left Ireland with no other option.
“I regret that we find ourselves in a position where such a choice had to be made,” Mr Martin said.
“However, the decision by the British Government not to proceed with the 2014 Stormont House Agreement and instead pursue legislation unilaterally, without effective engagement with the legitimate concerns that we, and many others, raised left us with few options.
“The British Government removed the political option, and has left us only this legal avenue.” Mr Martin said that the Government has considered the laws incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights since it was first introduced.
“I used every opportunity to make my concerns known, and urged the British Government to pause this legislation.”
The Tánaiste said that the primary concerns with the legislation are around granting of immunity, saying that this shuts down “existing avenues to truth and justice for historic cases”.
Mr Martin added that the Irish Government is not the only concerned party over the laws, with issues being flagged by the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights and the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights.
Ireland previously took a case against the UK in 1971 over its methods of interrogation used by the British Army in Northern Ireland. The case saw 14 people, known as the Hooded Men, interrogated for seven days using what had been known as the “five techniques”.
The European Court of Human Rights found that the techniques were inhuman and degrading treatment, but did not constitute torture. The Government previously sought to revise this decision, but was dismissed in March 2018.