A body being established by the UK government to deal with the legacy of the Northern Ireland Troubles offers “a real opportunity to deliver the answers that people are looking for”, its chief-commissioner designate has said.
The controversial legislation, which will set up the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR), is making its way through Westminster. The UK government had hoped it would become law this month, but it has been delayed until September.
Former Lord Chief Justice Declan Morgan, who is the chief commissioner-designate, issued a statement as a public survey opened on Wednesday seeking the public’s views to help design how the new body should work.
“The people of Northern Ireland and all those affected by the Troubles need the legacy of the past to be properly dealt with,” he said. “I believe we have a real opportunity to deliver the answers that people are looking for, but to do this, we need to build a process that is founded on integrity, expertise and fairness.
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“This is why we want to hear people’s views as we develop our operating principles.”
The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill aims to “draw a line” under the past by replacing current methods of criminal and civil investigations and inquests with inquiries carried out by the ICRIR.
The body will have the power to offer conditional immunity for perpetrators who are deemed to have co-operated with its inquiries, which has been criticised as an “amnesty”.
The legislation is opposed by the North’s five main political parties, victims and human rights groups, the Irish Government, other parties in Ireland and in Britain, and internationally. It is supported by veterans’ groups.
Human rights organisations have previously criticised the “rush” to set up the body and to make appointments before the legislation which would establish it becomes law.
Earlier this month, Northern Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris, in response to his Labour counterpart Peter Kyle, said a “dedicated secretariat, supporting the preparatory work being undertaken by Sir Declan, has been established as a separate business unit of the Northern Ireland Office (NIO)”.
Mr Heaton-Harris said it had a “separate budget and staffing” and does not report to the NIO, and currently had 19 members of staff.
Recruitment is under way for a number of non-executive commissioners, as well as other roles in the ICRIR.
Daniel Holder, the deputy director of the Belfast-based human rights NGO the Committee on the Administration of Justice, said it was “alarming that this is just being pressed ahead with when UN and Council of Europe experts have assessed this Bill as not being lawful”.
He said it was “quite odd to see a survey asking what people think of the new commission given as the views of victims and others have been loud and clear from the start that they don’t want this new legacy body”.
“The section on ‘our independence’ on the survey simply parrots dubious British government claims the new body will be duly independent and have necessary powers that have long been refuted by international experts,” he said.
The Belfast-based WAVE Trauma Centre said that in the UK government’s “parallel universe” its “cruel betrayal of victims and survivors will bring ‘reconciliation’ via a survey on the best way to do it”.
The ICRIR said its work will involve reviewing deaths and other serious Troubles-related incidents, producing and publishing reports into the findings of its reviews, deciding whether to grant immunity from prosecution, referring deaths and other incidents to prosecutors, and producing a record of deaths caused by incidents during the Troubles.
The public survey can be accessed at https://icrir.independent-inquiry.uk/have-your-say-in-our-survey/
