Urging the Administration to promptly and publicly oppose passage of the so-called “Legacy and Reconciliation Act” by the UK Parliament.
Ad Hoc Committee to Protect the Good Friday Agreement
June 12, 2023
Ms. Amanda Sloat
Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Europe
National Security Council
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Director Sloat:
We are writing to strongly urge the Administration to promptly and publicly oppose passage of the so-called “Legacy and Reconciliation Act” by the UK Parliament. In our view, the time for an expression of public opposition is especially urgent in light of: a) the proposed Act’s incompatibility with the Good Friday Agreement and international law; b) the opposition of all political parties and civil society in Northern Ireland: and c) the Act’s imminent passage in light of final and unacceptable amendments that were not announced until after Prime Minister Sunak’s just concluded visit to the United States.
We agree with the highly respected, non-sectarian, Northern Ireland Committee on the Administration of Justice, which characterized the “game-changing amendments” as “smoke and mirrors” that addressed none of the Legacy Bill’s principal flaws and in certain instances have made the legislation worse.
First, the amended Legacy Bill if enacted would still constitute a blatant violation of the GFA and international human rights law more generally. In particular, the Bill’s effective grant of amnesty and shutting down of existing criminal, civil, and administrative accountability mechanisms remain unchanged. As such the legislation would constitute, among other things, a violation of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, on which the GFA relies, as well as Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. For these reasons, the bill has been condemned by the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, the Council of Europe, and an array of human rights NGOs in the Northern Ireland, the UK, and the US. Beyond Northern Ireland, the UK government’s disregard of its international human rights obligations undermines the efforts of its allies – including the United States – to hold states accountable for human rights violations elsewhere, including in Ukraine, Xinjiang, and Iran.
Second, the imminent legacy legislation remains uniformly opposed in Northern Ireland itself. Every Northern Ireland political party, ranging from Sinn Fein to the Democratic Unionist Party, remains united in rejecting the bill. In meetings with the Ad Hoc Committee, party leaders have been especially eloquent in citing the damage that the law would do to the peace and reconciliation process. Victims and human rights groups in Northern Ireland likewise remain united in opposition. So too does the Irish government, which has left open the possibility of bringing an action against the UK in the European Court of Human Rights, the UK Labour Party, and members of the US Congress from both parties.
Third, this past week’s “game-changing” amendments do nothing to allay these uniformly expressed concerns. In certain respects, the amendments actually make the legislation less human rights compliant. Specifically, more current civil inquests may be shut down since now they must be completed, rather than merely initiated, by the time of a new revised deadline. It is now painfully clear the prospect of “game-changing” amendments was a delaying tactic in an effort to mitigate further condemnation of the bill, the better to rush a final version through Parliament. The delay in releasing the amendments until Prime Minister Sunak’s departure from Washington is fully consistent with this strategy.
For all these reasons, the Ad Hoc Committee believes the time has come for the Administration to condemn the proposed “Legacy and Reconciliation “Act publicly, as it has done privately. Twenty-five years on, the GFA remains one of the signal achievements of American diplomacy. It would be tragic if on this anniversary the core of this achievement was undone without the United States taking a public stand.
Sincerely,
Congressman James Walsh
Co-Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee
Congressman Bruce Morrison
Co-Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee
C.c. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Douglas Jones
Under Secretary of State Uzra Zeya
U.S Consul General Belfast Paul Narain
AdHocGFA.org 