UK plans to further appeal Northern Ireland amnesty ruling

By Amanda Ferguson

The British government plans to further appeal a Belfast court ruling that legislation introduced by the previous government was incompatible with human-rights protections secured in a post-Brexit agreement for Northern Ireland.

Belfast's High Court ruled in February that the offering by the UK of conditional amnesties to ex-soldiers and militants involved in Northern Ireland's decades of violence was in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.

After Keir Starmer became prime minister in July, his new government said it would scrap the amnesty scheme that was opposed by all major parties in the region and reverse the policy of prohibiting victims and families from bringing civil claims.

However, it continued the previous government's appeal against the High Court's decision that parts of the immunity provisions were incompatible with the Windsor Framework agreement governing post-Brexit trade in Northern Ireland.

The agreement, struck by the UK and the European Union last year, guaranteed there would be no diminution of human rights protected under Northern Ireland's 1998 Good Friday peace agreement following the UK's withdrawal from the bloc.

Northern Ireland's appeals court last month largely upheld the high court's findings.

"The Court of Appeal judgment is complex and wide-ranging. We require further time to consider fully its implications and next steps, and intend to bring clarity and certainty as soon as possible," the British government's Northern Ireland Office told Reuters.

"In the meantime, the government has lodged an application with the Court of Appeal seeking leave to appeal the Dillon and Others judgment," it added, referring to the original ruling.

The UK's Northern Ireland Minister Hilary Benn said again this month that the court rulings have introduced legal uncertainty about what protections are afforded under the framework and how legislation applies across the United Kingdom.

Human-rights groups disagree that there is legal uncertainty and have said any final judicial interpretation will have long-lasting consequences for a wide range of issues, including immigration, future attempts to deal with the legacy of Northern Ireland's "Troubles" and other issues yet to come up.

In May, the High Court cited the Windsor Framework when ruling that parts of the previous government's immigration policy should not apply in Northern Ireland as they undermined human-rights protections guaranteed in post-Brexit arrangements.