The above derided Home Office tweet and other official Brexit communications overlook the part of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) where the UK recognises the birthright of those born in Northern Ireland to be accepted as Irish and hold Irish citizenship. Given this recognition it is hardly compatible with the GFA to casually imply…Continue reading Will NI-born Irish citizens have to pay a £65 or £437 fee to keep some EU rights after Brexit? Guest post by Daniel Holder, Deputy Director, CAJ
Category: Civil Liberties
RUC Walker Report: The Wall of Silence Loses Another Brick Guest post by Brian Gormally, CAJ
On 16 January 1980, the then Chief Constable of the RUC commissioned a report on the interchange of intelligence between Special Branch (SB) and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and on the staffing and organisation of various other RUC units. This was written by one Patrick J. Walker, then a senior officer in the Belfast…Continue reading RUC Walker Report: The Wall of Silence Loses Another Brick Guest post by Brian Gormally, CAJ
New border policing powers proposed Guest post by Brian Gormally, CAJ
A Draft Bill introduced into the House of Commons by the UK Government proposes new powers for police, customs and immigration officers along the Border. In a mile-wide strip along the Border between North and South, people will be liable to stopped, searched and detained in order to check whether they are entering or leaving…Continue reading New border policing powers proposed Guest post by Brian Gormally, CAJ
The Return of the Bill of Rights? Guest Post by Professor Colin Harvey and Dr Anne Smith
The Northern Ireland Bill of Rights appears to have made a comeback. A process that involved much collective effort seemed to have ended in the vague language of paragraph 69 of the Stormont House Agreement (SHA). With no one prepared to take responsibility for its advancement, hope had faded; like much else relating to rights…Continue reading The Return of the Bill of Rights? Guest Post by Professor Colin Harvey and Dr Anne Smith
Council of Europe minority rights report – time to move on Irish language act and end abuse of the ‘good relations’ duty
This week saw the publication of the Fourth Opinion on the UK by the Council of Europe Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for National Minorities. In accordance with the treaty-body procedure the report itself was finalised on the 25 May 2016 but awaited UK government comments before its publication. The report therefore was completed…Continue reading Council of Europe minority rights report – time to move on Irish language act and end abuse of the ‘good relations’ duty
Constitutional Law 101 Lessons: The Brexit judgment on the prerogative in R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union.
Rory O’Connell. Rory is Editor of RightsNI, Professor of Human Rights and Constitutional Law at Ulster University School of Law and Director of the Transitional Justice Institute (TJI). He is a member of the Board of the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), one of the applicants in the Brexit case Agnew and others.…Continue reading Constitutional Law 101 Lessons: The Brexit judgment on the prerogative in R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union.
The Border, racial profiling and Irish citizens post BREXIT
An issue which has been aired in the run up to and aftermath of the referendum has been the fate of land border on the island of Ireland. At a level of political rhetoric the position of the Leave campaign was somewhat confusing, majoring on a platform of ‘taking back control’ of UK borders whilst…Continue reading The Border, racial profiling and Irish citizens post BREXIT
You’ll never walk alone – Hillsborough and the Human Rights Act
We are pleased to welcome this guest post from Dr Claire McCann, Human Rights Officer (Rights in Practice) with the Human Rights Consortium. Yesterday was a significant day for the families of those people killed in Hillsborough, who have fought so hard to discover the truth of what happened on that fateful day 27 years…Continue reading You’ll never walk alone – Hillsborough and the Human Rights Act
Roundtable Discussion on Where Next for a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland
We are pleased to welcome this guest post from Dr Anne Smith and Prof Monica McWilliams, Ulster University. They can be reached at a.smith1@ulster.ac.uk and m.mcwilliams@ulster.ac.uk. On the 14 December 2015, the Transitional Justice Institute (TJI) held a roundtable discussion on Where Next for a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland at Ulster University’s Belfast campus. The…Continue reading Roundtable Discussion on Where Next for a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland
‘The Impact of the Human Rights Act in Northern Ireland’, Conference Overview
The threat to the Human Rights Act rumbles on, albeit, in muted tones compared to the fanfare of the Conservatives 2014 proposals and now juxtaposed by Michael Gove, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice’s tepid responses to the House of Lords EU Justice Sub-Committee earlier this week, in relation to their inquiry on…Continue reading ‘The Impact of the Human Rights Act in Northern Ireland’, Conference Overview
Human Rights and Making Change: Looking Backwards and Moving Forwards from the Northern Ireland High Court Decision on Abortion
We are pleased to welcome this guest post from Dr Catherine O’Rourke. Catherine is Senior Lecturer in Human Rights and International Law at Ulster University Transitional Justice Institute. She is currently also co-coordinator of the Gender Stream of the DFID-funded Political Settlements Research Programme, where she is investigating how international law norms for gender equality influence domestic…Continue reading Human Rights and Making Change: Looking Backwards and Moving Forwards from the Northern Ireland High Court Decision on Abortion
A Discussion of Keyu & Others v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs & Another [2015] UKSC 69
We are delighted to welcome this guest post by the QUB Human Rights Centre (HRC). HRC can be contacted via Dr Luke Moffett l.moffett@qub.ac.uk. Introduction Members of the QUB Humans Rights Centre met today, Human Rights Day 2015, to discuss the judgment of the UK Supreme Court in Keyu & Others v Secretary of State…Continue reading A Discussion of Keyu & Others v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs & Another [2015] UKSC 69