Opinion: Martin O'Brien

Northern Ireland is entering a new phase of instability which has been fuelled by the UK Government’s decision to opt for a hard Brexit, when less disruptive alternatives existed.

But while media coverage has focused on the resulting trade and political crises, very little attention is being paid to the implications for human rights and equality in Northern Ireland.

In 1998 the UK Government was a signatory to the Good Friday-Belfast agreement which brought an end to decades of violence.

The agreement contained a blueprint for power-sharing government between divided communities, based on the bedrock of rights and equality for all.

An entire section of the agreement is devoted to “Rights, Safeguards and Equality of Opportunity”, which includes measures ranging from the protection of fair employment rights, to freedom of expression and the right to pursue constitutional change by peaceful means.

It introduced equality-proofing for the operation of government and public bodies and an independent Human Rights Commission was created in Northern Ireland.

The peace accord also committed the UK Government to incorporating the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into Northern Ireland law, including the power for courts to overrule legislation of the Northern Ireland Assembly if it did not conform to the Convention. The Irish Government similarly committed to incorporating the Convention into its domestic law and did so.

This extensive framework of checks and balances reflected the degree to which concerns over rights and equality go to the heart of the Northern Ireland conflict.

The Government subsequently introduced the Convention into UK law through the Human Rights Act, but Lord Chancellor Dominic Raab’s recent proposals to amend that Act look set to cause further problems for the protection of human rights in Northern Ireland.

Legal academics at the Human Rights Centre at Queen’s University, Belfast, in the submission they made to the review of the Act, laid out the dangers of tampering with the Act, in that, given the centrality of human rights to the Northern Ireland peace settlement, a weakening of the rights provided for in the Act threatens that settlement.

The Good Friday Agreement also recognised that addressing the needs of victims of the Troubles was a “necessary element of reconciliation”.

Recently, however, the UK Government signalled plans to drop unilaterally an agreed blueprint for dealing with the painful legacy of the Troubles.

It instead proposes an effective amnesty in relation to crimes linked to the conflict, while also closing down avenues to information, such as inquests. The move is believed to be aimed at protecting security forces, but will apply to all alleged offenders and has been widely criticised.

At the same time, the UK Government is involved in longrunning and often fractious talks with the European Commission, aimed at altering the Brexit arrangements for trade between Britain and Northern Ireland.

Once again, while the political wrangling has dominated headlines and has led to the effective collapse of the devolved government in Northern Ireland, there is little appreciation of the role the Brexit arrangements play in protecting rights.

Two important agreements were put in place to address concerns that the UK’s exit from the EU would lead to a diminution of rights protections in Northern Ireland: the Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol and the Trade and Co-operation Agreement (“TCA”).

Article 2 of the Protocol, the key provision dealing with human rights and equality, provides that there shall be “no diminution of rights, safeguards or equality of opportunity” as set out in the corresponding section of the 1998 Agreement, resulting from the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

The human rights provisions of the TCA state that co-operation between the UK and EU (especially in the criminal justice context) is based on the UK’s continuing protection of fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals, including those set out in the Convention.

A new guide to human rights and equality under the Protocol has been produced by the Northern Ireland-based Social Change Initiative, the Human Rights Centre at Queen’s University, Belfast, and the Donia Human Rights Center at the University of Michigan.

As Geraldine McGahey, Chief Commissioner at the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, said at the launch of the guide, the rights protections contained in the Protocol deserve closer consideration: “It is negative aspects and concerns about the Protocol that we hear most about, rather than this particular important aspect – the Protocol article 2 and how it can benefit everyone’s rights here in Northern Ireland.”

Alyson Kilpatrick, Chief Commissioner at the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, spoke for many when she added: “No trade deal in our view can compensate for the infringement of fundamental rights; in fact it will fall if fundamental rights are infringed.”

• The Human Rights Centre at Queen's University Belfast has since published its response to the UK Government consultation on the Human Rights Act.