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UK govt to appeal ruling over Northern Ireland amnesty law

Colton also ruled that the law also breached Article 3 of the ECHR, which prohibits torture and outlaws “inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”…reports Asian Lite News

The UK said Thursday it had lodged an application to appeal a Northern Ireland court ruling that a law granting immunity to combatants involved in historic sectarian violence was incompatible with European law.

A Belfast court ruled last week that the law granting immunity to those involved in the decades of violence in the UK province known as “the Troubles” contravened the European Convention on Human Rights.

“Following consideration of all aspects of the judgment, the UK government has lodged an application for an appeal with the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal,” London said Thursday.

Victims of the violence launched the legal action challenging the law, which received royal assent in September despite widespread opposition from political parties, victims’ organisations, the Irish government and the Council of Europe.

The law, first proposed by the ruling Conservative government in May 2022, calls for the creation of a truth and recovery commission offering amnesty to British security personnel and paramilitaries if they cooperate with its enquiries.

But in its ruling, the Belfast High Court said there is no evidence the immunity provision will contribute to reconciliation in Northern Ireland.

“I am satisfied that the immunity from prosecution provisions… are in breach of the lead applicant’s rights pursuant to Article 2 of the ECHR,” judge Adrian Colton said.

Article 2 of the convention affirms issues around the right to life.

Colton also ruled that the law also breached Article 3 of the ECHR, which prohibits torture and outlaws “inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.

However, the judge also said the new body set up to probe Troubles killings — the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) — could proceed with human rights-compliant investigations.

“The court is satisfied that the provisions of the Act leave sufficient scope for ICRIR to conduct an effective investigation as required under Articles 2 and 3 of ECHR,” he said.

As well as appealing the decision, the UK could decide to amend the controversial law.

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UK Parliament adopts Northern Ireland Troubles ‘legacy’ bill

More than 3,500 people were killed during the conflict that began in the 1960s over British rule in Northern Ireland…reports Asian Lite News

The UK Parliament has voted to adopt a controversial law granting immunity to fighters involved in the 30 years of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles despite criticism from Ireland and the Council of Europe.

The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill, proposed by the Conservative government in May 2022 and approved by the legislature on Tuesday, calls for the creation of a truth and recovery commission offering amnesty to British security personnel and paramilitaries if they cooperate with its enquiries.

More than 3,500 people were killed during the conflict that began in the 1960s over British rule in Northern Ireland.

About 1,200 deaths remain under investigation, according to the UK government.

The law has been fiercely criticised by families of those who died during that period, by all political parties in Northern Ireland, and by the Irish government, which said earlier this month that it was considering legal action against it.

The new legislation “threatens to harm Britain’s standing” internationally, according to Alan Brecknell, a case worker at the Pat Finucane Centre – a human rights group advocating a non-violent resolution of the conflict on the island of Ireland.

“The number of cases impacted by this bill could run into the hundreds if not thousands,” he said. “It doesn’t just have implications for this place. You’re going to have a lot of countries – some of them not as democratised as Britain claims to be – saying, ‘Well, look, if Britain can do this and get away with it, why can’t we?’ And I think that is not a good place for Britain’s standing in the world to be seen to be,” Brecknell said.

Europe’s leading rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, has expressed “serious concerns” about the amnesty and its compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), of which the UK is a signatory.

But veterans’ groups have welcomed the move, saying former soldiers have been unfairly targeted in prosecutions for taking part in the conflict.

In November 2022, former British serviceman David Holden became the first soldier convicted of a killing committed during the Troubles following the signing of the 1998 peace accord.

He later received a three-year suspended sentence for manslaughter for shooting 23-year-old Aidan McAnespie.

The UN Human Rights Office said on Tuesday: “We deeply regret the passage of the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill despite concerns … that it violates the UK’s international human rights obligations.”

“We urge its reconsideration and call for victims’ rights to be central in addressing the Troubles’ legacy,” it posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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Sunak to meet Biden in Northern Ireland

Biden will leave Northern Ireland on Wednesday for the Republic, where he will visit Dublin, Co Louth and Co Mayo…reports Asian Lite News

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is set to meet US President Joe Biden in Belfast, Northern Ireland next week when the US president flies in to take part in events to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday peace accord.

Biden, who will arrive in Air Force One on Tuesday evening, is intensely proud of his Irish heritage and the US’s role in the peace accord. He will give a key address at Ulster University’s newly opened campus on Wednesday and will have a formal meeting with Sunak.

Sunak is expected to use the visit to drum up long-term investment for the nation.

A major policing operation costing around Pound 7 million and backed up by around 300 officers will be underway around the anniversary after the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) warned of the potential of dissident republicans launching attacks.

MI5 recently raised the terrorism threat level in Northern Ireland to severe, meaning an attack is highly likely.

Biden will leave Northern Ireland on Wednesday for the Republic, where he will visit Dublin, Co Louth and Co Mayo.

Meanwhile, Sunak on Sunday praised Northern Ireland’s landmark 1988 peace accord. He was 17 when the Good Friday Agreement was agreed, largely ending three decades of violence in the UK province.

In a statement released by Downing Street, Sunak said the signing of the Good Friday Agreement was an “incredible moment” in the UK’s history.

The agreement ended the 30-year conflict in Northern Ireland which claimed more than 3,500 lives. “It was a powerfully rare example of people doing the previously unthinkable to create a better future for Northern Ireland,” the prime minister said.

“It is that promise of a better future that we offered to everyone in Northern Ireland that I will be thinking of first and foremost over the coming days. It is my responsibility as the prime minister of the United Kingdom to ensure we are making good on that promise.”

Sunak was “relentlessly focused” on delivering economic growth in Northern Ireland, which he said is crucial to improving living standards, the statement added.

Sunak will participate in a number of events next week to commemorate the signing on April 10, 1998, of the US-brokered peace accord, agreed between the governments in London and Dublin, and the Northern Irish political parties.

The pair will “undertake a programme of engagements”, including a bilateral meeting, Sunak’s Downing Street office said.

Notably, the US president’s visit comes amid a heightened terror threat in Northern Ireland, and with power-sharing in Stormont still on hold because of post-Brexit tensions.

The Good Friday Agreement – signed on April 10, 1998 – largely ended three decades of sectarian bloodshed that had convulsed Northern Ireland since the late 1960s.

However the anniversary has been overshadowed by a year-long boycott by Northern Ireland’s largest pro-British unionist party of the power-sharing devolved government central to the peace deal. The Democratic Unionist Party is angry about post-Brexit trade rules that treated the province differently to the rest of the UK.

In March, Britain’s MI5 intelligence agency increased the threat level in Northern Ireland from domestic terrorism to “severe” – meaning an attack is highly likely – though the move was not thought to be linked to the anniversary.

Biden clashed with the British government at times during Brexit talks, but has spoken in support of a recently agreed UK-EU deal to address some of the tensions caused by the original Brexit agreement.

Although that deal has so far failed to restore the devolved government in Northern Ireland, Sunak will seek to bolster his support for the province by announcing a summit later in the year to stimulate international investment.

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Sunak visits Northern Ireland after sealing ‘historic’ EU deal

The agreement, which will allow goods to flow freely to Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, could end a dispute that has soured its relations with the bloc…reports Asian Lite News

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visited Northern Ireland on Tuesday after the UK and European Union sealed a deal a day earlier to resolve their post-Brexit dispute over trade in the region.

Speaking on the BBC on Tuesday morning, Sunak said he believed “hand on heart” that “this agreement is going to make a huge difference” to businesses and people in Northern Ireland.

“That’s what I’m going to talk to people about today, listening to them and explaining how this deal is going to be positive.”

It aims to allow for smoother trade between the rest of the UK and Northern Ireland, which was complicated by the old protocol negotiated in 2020 under then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

“I’m over the moon that yesterday we managed to have a decisive breakthrough with our negotiations with the EU,” Sunak said.

“The new Windsor framework that I think is an extraordinarily positive step for Northern Ireland and it represents […] a historic moment for us to move forward and resolve some of the difficulties of the past.”

The agreement, which will allow goods to flow freely to Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, could end a dispute that has soured its relations with the bloc.

Now Sunak is waiting for the judgment of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, which is boycotting the region’s power-sharing government until the trade arrangements are changed to its satisfaction.

The DUP collapsed Northern Ireland’s government a year ago, and it has asked authorities to lift customs controls on most products arriving in Northern Ireland from other parts of the United Kingdom.

Sunak said the new rules “removed any sense of a border in the Irish Sea” by eliminating checks and paperwork for the vast majority of goods entering Northern Ireland.

Only those destined to travel onward to EU member Ireland will be checked.

The revised text also gives Northern Ireland’s devolved assembly the power to stop any forthcoming EU legislation that it considers to be inimical to regional interests.

“Today’s agreement delivers smooth-flowing trade within the whole United Kingdom, protects Northern Ireland’s place in our union and safeguards sovereignty for the people of Northern Ireland,” Sunak said.

Von der Leyen stressed that the EU’s borderless single market would be protected by safeguards including “IT access, labels and enforcement procedures” and said the European Court of Justice would remain “the sole and ultimate arbiter of EU law.”

The role of the European court in resolving any disputes that arise over the rules has been the thorniest issue in the talks.

The UK and the EU agreed in their Brexit divorce deal to give the European court that authority. But the DUP and Conservative Party Eurosceptics insist the court must have no jurisdiction in UK matters.

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King Charles intensifies UK-EU impasse on Northern Ireland tour

Donaldson said he was hopeful that on-off talks with the EU over reform of the protocol would “progress”, it reported, without quoting sources…reports Asian Lite News

King Charles III on Tuesday raised a fraught post-Brexit impasse between the United Kingdom and the European Union during a meeting with Northern Ireland’s feuding political leaders.

The new British monarch met the leaders at the royal estate of Hillsborough Castle as part of a UK tour following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

In a speech at Hillsborough, Charles pledged to “seek the welfare” of all Northern Ireland’s divided communities, stressing the queen had “never ceased to pray for the best of times for this place and its people”.

He held a reception with the party leaders after the speech, including the pro-UK Democratic Unionist Party’s Jeffrey Donaldson and Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Fein, which wants unification with Ireland.

Charles expressed keen interest in the issue of the Brexit-related Northern Ireland Protocol, engaging in a lengthy conversation with Donaldson over the issue, the domestic PA news agency reported.

Donaldson said he was hopeful that on-off talks with the EU over reform of the protocol would “progress”, it reported, without quoting sources.

Sinn Fein emerged on top in Northern Irish elections in May, but the DUP has refused to let the regional assembly reconvene unless London and Brussels abandon the protocol.

The pact entails checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from mainland Britain, prompting the DUP to fret that the territory is being gradually hived off from the UK.

But Donaldson welcomed conciliatory noises from the EU over potential changes to minimise the checks, PA said, as the new UK government presses legislation to overhaul the protocol on its own.

Charles meanwhile thanked O’Neill for Sinn Fein’s condolences over his mother’s death, PA reported.

After Hillsborough, a religious service was held in Belfast where Charles shook hands with Irish President Michael D. Higgins, in the king’s first meeting with another head of state.

The Sinn Fein speaker of Northern Ireland’s Stormont assembly, Alex Maskey, gave a reading at the service, before the king met well-wishers outside the cathedral and flew out to London.

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Northern Ireland trade law clears parliamentary hurdle

“While a negotiated outcome remains our preference – the EU must accept changes to the Protocol itself,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Twitter after the vote…reports Asian Lite News

Legislation allowing Britain to scrap some of the rules on post-Brexit trade with Northern Ireland on Monday passed the first of many parliamentary tests, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson pressed on with plans that have angered the European Union.

Despite some fierce criticism, lawmakers voted 295 to 221 in favour of the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which would unilaterally overturn part of Britain’s divorce deal from the EU agreed in 2020. The bill now proceeds to line-by-line scrutiny.

Tensions with the EU have simmered for months after Britain accused Brussels of insisting on a heavy-handed approach to the movement of goods between Britain and Northern Ireland – checks needed to keep an open border with EU member Ireland.

Johnson has described the changes he is seeking as “relatively trivial” and ministers insist the move does not break international law, but the EU has started legal proceedings against Britain over its plans.

“While a negotiated outcome remains our preference – the EU must accept changes to the Protocol itself,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Twitter after the vote.

Asked if the changes set out in the new bill could be implemented this year, Johnson told broadcasters: “Yes, I think we could do it very fast, parliament willing”.

Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, was one of several from his Conservative Party to criticise their leader.

“This bill is not, in my view, legal in international law, it will not achieve its aims and it will diminish the standing of the United Kingdom in the eyes of the world, and I cannot support it,” she said.

Ahead of the vote, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said the bill would not lead to a sustainable solution and would only add to uncertainty in Northern Ireland.

“I am hugely disappointed that the British government is continuing to pursue its unlawful unilateral approach on the Protocol on Northern Ireland,” he said in a statement.

Johnson has a majority to push the law through the House of Commons, though the vocal group of rebels will add to concerns about his authority following his survival in a confidence vote on June 6 and the embarrassing loss of two parliamentary seats on Friday.

The bill will face a bigger challenge when it eventually moves to the upper house, the unelected House of Lords, where the government doesn’t have a majority and many peers have expressed concern about it.

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Bill to override Northern Ireland deal back in Parliament

This creates a customs border down the Irish Sea, keeping Northern Ireland in the EU’s customs orbit so as to avoid a politically sensitive hard border between it and EU member Ireland…reports Asian Lite News

A government bill proposing an overhaul to a post-Brexit deal in Northern Ireland returns to parliament on Monday, despite EU warnings it is illegal and could spark a trade war.

Brussels threatened legal action after the UK government earlier this month introduced the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill to unilaterally change trading terms for the British province.

A day before it gets its second reading in parliament — the first opportunity for lawmakers to debate a proposal — the EU’s ambassador again warned London of reprisals if it is passed.

“We think it is both illegal and unrealistic. It is illegal because it’s a breach of international law, a breach of EU law and UK law,” Joao Vale de Almeida told Sky News on Sunday.

“We are committed to find the practical solutions on implementation, but we cannot start talking if the baseline is to say everything we have agreed before is to be put aside,” he added.

The protocol — signed separately from the wider trade and cooperation agreement — requires checks on goods arriving into Northern Ireland from England, Scotland and Wales, in order to track products that could be potentially headed to the EU via the Republic of Ireland.

This creates a customs border down the Irish Sea, keeping Northern Ireland in the EU’s customs orbit so as to avoid a politically sensitive hard border between it and EU member Ireland.

But pro-British parties in Northern Ireland say it is driving a wedge between London and Belfast and are refusing to join in a power-sharing government in the province until the protocol is changed.

Unionist parties and the UK government argue the protocol is threatening the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that ended three decades of violence over British rule in Northern Ireland.

They want checks to be removed on goods and animal and plant products travelling from Great Britain.

“The problem (with) the protocol is the way the EU want to see it implemented,” the UK’s Northern Ireland minister Brandon Lewis told Sky News on Sunday.

“What we are doing is fixing the problems within the protocol, about how it’s being implemented, so that businesses can prosper again.

“I want to see the re-establishment of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the executive — the protocol is getting in the way of that and that’s why it’s breaching the Belfast Good Friday Agreement,” he added.

“We want to do this by agreement with the EU but to do that, they need to show some flexibility.”

Plans to unilaterally override parts of the protocol have provoked anger in European capitals, particularly Dublin, and have led to the EU threatening an all-out trade war if implemented.

“Unilateral action is damaging to mutual trust,” European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic told reporters in Brussels when the UK introduced the legislation.

Sefcovic said Brussels would now consider reopening a suspended “infringement procedure” against Britain, as well as opening fresh cases.

This would be to “protect the EU single market from risks that the violation of the protocol creates for the EU businesses and for the health and safety of EU citizens”, he added.

After Monday’s debate, the bill still has several hurdles to clear in both the House of Commons and upper House of Lords before it becomes law, and faces legal challenges.

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Britain calls for EU action on Northern Ireland

London is bidding to placate pro-UK unionists who are refusing to join a new power-sharing government in Belfast — led for the first time by pro-Irish nationalists — until the protocol is reformed…reports Asian Lite News

Britain has insisted it is up to the European Union to unblock political paralysis in Northern Ireland, after assuring a delegation from the US Congress of its “cast-iron” commitment to peace in the province.

The British government has provoked anger on both sides of the Atlantic with a plan to overhaul the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol, a trading arrangement that was agreed as part of its Brexit divorce deal with the EU.

London is bidding to placate pro-UK unionists who are refusing to join a new power-sharing government in Belfast — led for the first time by pro-Irish nationalists — until the protocol is reformed.

Interviewed by the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis demanded that Brussels adopt a new negotiating mandate to address the fierce objections of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

“I made this point to the EU myself before the (May 5) elections. My view was, it was much easier to get a deal before the elections than afterwards,” Lewis said.

“The idea that it was going to be easier after the elections was a crazy one from the EU.” The protocol recognised Northern Ireland’s status as a fragile, post-conflict territory that shares the UK’s new land border with the EU.

Keeping the border open with neighbouring Ireland, an EU member, was mandated in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, given that the frontier was a frequent flashpoint during three decades of violence. But the protocol’s requirement for checks on goods arriving from England, Scotland and Wales has infuriated the DUP and other unionists, who say it drives a wedge between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

Lewis stressed that the DUP, as the biggest unionist party, had a democratic mandate to back its position.

“And at the moment, the protocol, which the EU claims is about protecting the Good Friday Agreement, is the very document putting the Good Friday Agreement most at risk,” he said. But the EU insists the protocol is not up for renegotiation.

And last week Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, warned that the UK could forget about a post-Brexit trade deal if it rewrites the agreement.

On Saturday, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss met in England with a congressional delegation led by Richard Neal, a senior member of Pelosi’s Democratic party in the House.

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DUP shuts down Northern Ireland Assembly

Unless the DUP changes its mind, it could take up to six months before fresh elections would be held…reports Asian Lite News

Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) lived up to its threat and blocked the restoration of the power-sharing government.

In the Northern Ireland Assembly (Stormont) on Friday, the DUP politicians abstained in a vote on the appointment of a Speaker, forcing it to collapse, reports Xinhua news agency.

They ignored pleas by other elected members to allow the assembly and its cabinet of ministers to function.

Unless the DUP changes its mind, it could take up to six months before fresh elections would be held.

In the meantime, there will be no functioning executive cabinet or Assembly.

In last week’s elections, the pro-Republican Sinn Fein party won majority support and the right to choose, for the first time ever, the administration’s First Minister.

The vote left the previous majority-holder in the assembly, the DUP, with the right to name a Deputy First Minister.

Under the rules, the Assembly and its executive cabinet cannot function unless a Speaker, First Minister and a Deputy fFirst Minister are all in place.

The DUP vehemently opposes the Northern Ireland Protocol, the trade solution agreed by London and the European Union (EU) to prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and the neighbouring Republic of Ireland.

Under the deal, an Irish Sea border was created between the British mainland and Northern Ireland, meaning goods transported to and from Northern Ireland are subjected to border controls.

It has led to threats by the British government to tear up the protocol, a prospect hotly opposed by the EU.

The focus now switches to UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who needs to solve the protocol dispute with EU officials in Brussels.

In Friday’s debate, the DUP’s Gordon Lyons said: “We will not be going into an executive until we deal with the instability of the protocol and with the long shadow it is casting.”

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DUP blocks restoration of government in Northern Ireland

DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson warns against new checks at N.Ireland ports.(pic credit: https://twitter.com/J_Donaldson_MP)

Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) lived up to its threat and blocked the restoration of the power-sharing government, reports Asian Lite News

In the Northern Ireland Assembly (Stormont) on Friday, the DUP politicians abstained in a vote on the appointment of a Speaker, forcing it to collapse, reports Xinhua news agency.

They ignored pleas by other elected members to allow the assembly and its cabinet of ministers to function.

Unless the DUP changes its mind, it could take up to six months before fresh elections would be held.

In the meantime, there will be no functioning executive cabinet or Assembly.

In last week’s elections, the pro-Republican Sinn Fein party won majority support and the right to choose, for the first time ever, the administration’s First Minister.

The vote left the previous majority-holder in the assembly, the DUP, with the right to name a Deputy First Minister.

Under the rules, the Assembly and its executive cabinet cannot function unless a Speaker, First Minister and a Deputy fFirst Minister are all in place.

The DUP vehemently opposes the Northern Ireland Protocol, the trade solution agreed by London and the European Union (EU) to prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and the neighbouring Republic of Ireland.

Under the deal, an Irish Sea border was created between the British mainland and Northern Ireland, meaning goods transported to and from Northern Ireland are subjected to border controls.

It has led to threats by the British government to tear up the protocol, a prospect hotly opposed by the EU.

The focus now switches to UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who needs to solve the protocol dispute with EU officials in Brussels.

Northern Ireland Assembly(credit: https://www.facebook.com/NorthernIrelandAssembly)

In Friday’s debate, the DUP’s Gordon Lyons said: “We will not be going into an executive until we deal with the instability of the protocol and with the long shadow it is casting.”

In a statement after the vote, Paul Murnaghan, president of the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry, described the decision as a blow to business and investor confidence.

“At a time when our elected representatives should be getting straight to work to tackle a myriad of very significant challenges, we remain in limbo.

“We call on all political representatives to stop allowing division to hold back progress and form a stable, fully functioning assembly and executive without delay,” he added.

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