Press Release
‘Massive, ongoing cover-up…In this Britain stands alone’Smith calls on UK to retract statute of limitations proposal for Troubles-era killings that ‘imperils the fragile peace in Northern Ireland’The proposal—outlined by the UK’s Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Brandon Lewis—would grant de facto immunity to those responsible for the estimated 3,500 killings over three decades of conflict that ended with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. “The Good Friday Agreement has worked, and only works, because the parties have enough confidence that the other parties to the agreement will abide by its terms,” said Smith, who has previously chaired 17 congressional hearings on human rights in the north of Ireland and has authored a law and several resolutions promoting the peace process there. “Yet now, one party to the Good Friday Agreement—the United Kingdom—is contemplating a unilateral decision to declare immunity by passing a statute of limitations for Troubles-era killings before there has been full accountability, against the express wishes of nearly every major actor in Northern Ireland, be they Catholic or Protestant,” Smith said. “There is nothing benign about an amnesty when it is all about concealing facts that would hold people to account for murder,” said Smith, who noted he will introduce a resolution in the House denouncing the UK’s proposal in solidarity with victims of the Northern Ireland conflict. Entitled “Northern Ireland: Accountability at Risk,” the hearing featured heart-wrenching testimony from Geraldine Finucane—the wife of the renowned human rights lawyer Pat Finucane, who was slain by loyalist paramilitaries in 1989 in collusion with British security forces. “In a modern democratic society that proclaims to hold the rule of law in high esteem, one would think that holding an investigation that meets basic human rights standards is the least we can expect,” Finucane said. “However, it is these very standards that the British Government seeks to erase by enacting new laws to prevent any investigations from being carried out.” “It is no exaggeration to say that Britain simply wants to sweep its actions and responsibilities under the carpet forever with no risk of any exposure,” said Finucane. Smith said that while the UK is a close ally and a strong partner in the promotion of human rights and democracy across the globe alongside the United States, the country’s unilateral proposal is “cavalier, taking the peace in Northern Ireland for granted.” “In this Britain stands alone,” Smith said. Other key witnesses at the hearing reiterated the profound threat posed by the UK’s proposal—including Mark Thompson, Chief Executive Officer of Relatives for Justice; Jon Boutcher, Head of Operation Kenova; Alan McBride, Co-coordinator of the Wave Trauma Center; and Louise Mallinder, Vice-Chair of the Committee on the Administration of Justice. “The UK Command Paper and proposed bill to abolish rule of law norms and standards, due process, the rights of victims who bore the brunt of conflict and sacrificed so much for peace, poses one of, if not the single, greatest threats encountered by the Good Friday Agreement,” said Thompson. “It is the very antithesis of everything the Good Friday Agreement represented.” “Legacy investigations have a history of not being provided unfettered access to records and of obstruction and obfuscation,” said Boutcher. “Victims and families have been repeatedly let down in their pursuit of being acknowledged, listened to and given information of what happened to their loved ones.” “The government’s proposals reinforce a message that says, ‘your loved one’s death doesn’t matter, and who carried out the murder doesn’t matter either,’” said McBride. “To get to the truth, the ‘truth’ needs to be interrogated in a court of law.” “The decision to impose an amnesty, despite opposition from almost all quarters of Northern Irish society and the Irish government, cannot be justified as necessary to ensure peace,” said Mallinder. “Indeed, in an already unstable political environment, these proposals risk undermining the peace.” ###
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