CAJ and other members of the Brexit and Human Rights Working Group share concerns about the increased possibility of a ‘No Deal’ Brexit. As representatives of Civil Society, we believe that Northern Ireland is on the brink of a No Deal Brexit emergency. In an evolving political landscape, a variety of factors indicate that the...
The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) has been reviewing and revising the procedures related to its enforcement (investigation) powers. These powers enable ECNI to investigate public bodies that fail to comply with their Section 75 duties. In March 2019, ECNI launched a public consultation on its (draft) ‘Revised Policy and Procedures for Complaints and...
Yesterday, CAJ was invited to appear before the Seanad Special Select Committee on the Withdrawal of the UK from the EU to speak on citizenship rights in post-Brexit Northern Ireland. Also present were Les Allamby, Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC), and Professor Colin Harvey of Queen’s University Belfast. Below is...
Next week representatives of three local NGOs will be travelling to Geneva to address members of the United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT) regarding the UK’s compliance with its international obligations on the prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment. Andrée Murphy and Irati Aiesta from Relatives for Justice, Gemma McKeown from the Committee...
More than two years have elapsed since the devolved power sharing institutions provided for under the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) collapsed in Northern Ireland. Additionally, many of the rights based commitments of the peace settlement, including those originally designed as to act as safeguards on the NI Executive and Assembly, remain unimplemented or have been...
Commitments made during the early stages of the Brexit process to protect the EU rights of Irish citizens in Northern Ireland have not been taken forward. BrexitLawNI has released a detailed briefing paper examining the fate of these commitments. Executive Summary Post-Brexit, Northern Ireland (NI) would be a jurisdiction outside of an EU member state...
Contained within the Ireland/Northern Ireland protocol of the draft Withdrawal Agreement is a commitment from the UK to ensure that, in the event of Brexit, there will be “no diminution” of key rights set out in the Good Friday Agreement. This commitment is to be implemented through ‘dedicated mechanisms’, including new oversight and enforcement powers...
The UK is currently undergoing the sixth periodic review of its compliance with the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which it ratified in 1988. All states signed up to the treaty have a duty to prevent and investigate torture, support victims of torture, and ensure perpetrators are...
The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers has published its latest decisions in relation to the scrutiny of the ‘cases concerning the actions of the security forces in Northern Ireland’, otherwise known as the McKerr group of cases. This follows on from a meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies, which took place in Strasburg earlier this...
Working with Conradh na Gaeilge and Ulster University, we have produced a report documenting how commitments made by the UK government in relation to the Irish language have been put into practice by councils in Northern Ireland. Local councils have an important role to play in fulfilling state duties in relation to the Irish language....
