The British government’s iniquitous Legacy Act has been dealt a severe, and hopefully fatal, blow by the High Court in Belfast, which has found that it is not compatible with international human rights legislation.
Mr Justice Colton said he was satisfied that the Act’s immunity from prosecution provisions breach Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
This is what victims groups, the north’s political parties, human rights organisations, the Irish government - which is taking its own case against the UK - and many others have been saying ever since Boris Johnson started promoting the policy.
He made no secret that its main purpose was to protect soldiers accused of Troubles-related killings from prosecution. But even by the lamentable standards of Johnsonian balderdash, it was cruelly audacious to also insist it would “draw a line” under the Troubles and “enable the people of Northern Ireland to move forward”.
- British government’s legacy amnesty plans are unlawful, High Court findsOpens in new window
- Sean Brown murder: Nuala O’Loan might have ‘produced a very different report’ if she’d known about state agent linksOpens in new window
- Sean Brown inquest delays are entirely unjustified and point to the weakness of new Troubles legacy structuresOpens in new window
The opposite is emphatically the case. Offering army veterans – or police officers, paramilitaries and other perpetrators – an amnesty and ending victims’ hopes of seeing their cases investigated to a criminal standard and dealt with by the courts and through inquests is not synonymous with advancing the causes of truth, reconciliation and justice.
All legacy matters are being swept into the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR), headed by former lord chief justice Sir Declan Morgan.
Sir Declan told this newspaper last year that compliance with the ECHR was one of his “red lines”. Although Mr Justice Colton says the ICRIR’s work can comply with Articles 2 and 3, it is hard to see the ruling as anything other than hugely damaging to its credibility.
The tragic cynicism of the Tories and their Legacy Act is illustrated by the plight of the family of Sean Brown, the Bellaghy GAA official who was murdered by a LVF gang in May 1997… inquests such as his will end on May 1 and there will be little confidence in the new ICRIR process
Importantly, the judgment is vindication for the families who brought the challenge. Yet we must also say that something has gone badly wrong with the moral compass of the political establishment when those who carry the scars inflicted by republican and loyalist paramilitaries and state forces have to bring the government to court.
The tragic cynicism of the Tories and their Legacy Act is illustrated by the plight of the family of Sean Brown, the Bellaghy GAA official who was murdered by a LVF gang in May 1997. Collusion has long been suspected, a fact only now officially confirmed through the inquest process.
Former Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan is right when she says it is “shocking” that the information has just come to light.
But the Legacy Act means inquests such as Mr Brown’s will end on May 1 and there can be little confidence that the ICRIR process will be able to deliver truth and justice. Far from building firm foundations for reconciliation, victims and their families are being failed again.
