A report published Monday by the International Commission of Human Rights Experts said the British government engaged in “widespread, systematic and systematic practices of impunity” during the Northern Ireland conflict to protect its security forces from sanctions.
The report revealed that state actors killed at least 374 people during the conflict in Northern Ireland, also known as the Troubles, with the majority of the victims being unarmed civilians at the time. The report further concluded that these killings by the state were not subject to fair and effective investigation and were in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The report also found that collusion was a persistent feature of state institutions' practices throughout the conflict, meaning that the UK government and security forces turned a blind eye to criminal activity by non-state actors. are doing.
The report recommends that the UK repeal the controversial new Northern Ireland Affairs (Heritage and Reconciliation) Act 2023, which is due to come into force on 1 May. be. The new law would prevent new autopsies and close many unresolved autopsies, the report said. . The bill creates a new agency to investigate past cases, the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery. However, the report argues that the agency's investigative powers are far weaker than those it replaces.
UN experts have previously raised concerns about the new law, warning that it would put the UK in clear breach of its international obligations.
The Northern Ireland High Court had previously ruled that the Legacy Act 2023 was incompatible with the ECHR, a decision the UK had appealed. Additionally, the Irish government has applied to the European Court of Human Rights in relation to the Legacy Act 2023, but the court has not yet ruled on the matter.
