The Irish Times view on the UK legacy bill: a structure with no legitimacy

As of Wednesday, the only body able to investigate troubles related deaths in Northern Ireland is the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery.

Ongoing criminal investigations must end. Ongoing coroner’s inquests – which have provided a valuable route for families seeking information on troubles-related deaths – must also stop. Troubles-related civil actions brought since May 2022 have not been able to proceed since late November.

The new body – created by the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 – now takes responsibility for reviewing unresolved deaths and has the power to recommend prosecutions. Legally independent of the UK government, it cannot, however, grant conditional immunity from prosecution to individuals who cooperate as had originally been proposed, as this was found to be in breach of international human rights law by the  Belfast High Court, *

The families of those whose death “was caused directly by conduct forming part of the Troubles” have five years to request a review by the commission. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and other officials can also request reviews.

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The stated purpose of the Legacy Act is to promote reconciliation. But the measures coming into effect today represent such a dramatic circumscription of the rights of families and individuals to seek justice and closure that they are set to prove counterproductive.

The commission is not supported by any of the political parties in Northern Ireland or representatives of civil society. Its only advocate in Westminster is the ruling Conservatives and many believe its purpose is to protect members of the British military, while also shielding the wider role of the security services in the North from scrutiny.

The Government has brought an interstate case at the European Court of Human Rights claiming that the act contravenes the right to life set out in the European Convention on Human Rights of which the UK is a signatory. The Belfast High Court has already ruled in a case brought by families that the amnesty provisions underpinning the new commission breach both section 2 and 3 of the convention. The case is likely to end up in Strasbourg alongside the Government’s, but an election in the UK may overtake events.

The Labour Party has promised to repeal the legacy act if – as expected – it is elected later this year or early next year. This may prove easier said than done and risks leaving the fundamental issue of reconciliation unresolved.

The legal basis for the new body is clearly questionable but its lack of public support has already destroyed any moral legitimacy it might aspire to have. Amnesty-based commissions of inquiry are a common feature of reconciliation processes around the world but for them to work they must have the buy-in of the victims and the wider community. The new commission has neither.

* this paragraph has been altered to clarify that the new body, The Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, cannot grant immunity from prosecution to individuals who co-operate with its inquiries