Submission to the Committee of Ministers in relation to the supervision of the cases concerning the action of the security forces in Northern Ireland (January 2020)
The Committee of Ministers is the decision-making body of Europe’s leading human rights organisation, the Council of Europe. At the start of March 2020, the 1369th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies was held to look at the execution of judgments made by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in a series of cases in which states have been found to have committed human rights violations.
This was to include consideration of the McKerr group of cases, which concern violations committed by the UK in relation to the actions of security forces in Northern Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s. However, this item was postponed until a later date due to the UK failing to submit concrete information on how it will carry out an investigation into the murder of Pat Finucane that is compliant with Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (i.e. the right to life).
CAJ made a detailed submission to the Committee of Ministers on the McKerr cases in advance of the meeting of the Deputies.
Our submission looks specifically at several areas, including the level of resourcing for the Police Ombudsman and the (pending) introduction to the UK Parliament of legislation to take forward the Stormont House Agreement. We urge the Ministers’ Deputies to keep under consideration invoking infringement proceedings against the UK if there is not rapid progress in implementing the Stormont House Agreement and in taking forward measures related to individual cases.
You can download the full submission here.