Addressing the legacy of Northern Ireland’s past: Response to NIO public consultation
A joint QUB/UU/CAJ team has published a detailed response to the latest proposals for addressing the legacy of Northern Ireland’s past.
The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) has been seeking views on a draft legacy bill for Northern Ireland. If enacted, this bill would see the establishment of four new institutions for dealing with the past and promoting reconciliation, as originally proposed in the 2014 Stormont House Agreement.
These institutions are the Implementation and Reconciliation Group (IRG), Oral History Archive (OHA), Independent Commission on Information Retrieval (ICIR) and Historical Investigations Unit (HIU).
In their response to the bill, the QUB/UU/CAJ team have analysed each proposed institution in great depth, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. They make around 50 recommendations on how current proposals could be improved, with a particular focus on ensuring operational independence and adherence to international human rights standards.
Overall, it is the team’s view that the bill is workable, but only if changes are made.
Their full report, which was first unveiled in the School Of law at QUB, can be downloaded here: http://bit.ly/2N0Gzrr
Previously, in 2015, the same team drafted a Model Bill to show how the legacy mechanisms found within the Stormont House Agreement could be taken forward in a human rights compliant way.