A report that rejects the contention that the UK cannot withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) because of commitments made in the Good Friday Agreement has sparked debate.
The Policy Exchange has said that “nothing in the UK’s commitments to the peace process in Northern Ireland requires it to remain a part of the ECHR”.
One of the authors of the paper added that public debate about human rights law reform has been “distorted” by the repeated assertion that withdrawal from the ECHR would breach the peace deal brokered in 1998.
The paper states: “When one considers the Belfast Agreement carefully, noting the relationship between the British-Irish Agreement (the treaty) and the Multi-Party Agreement (the political agreement), it is clear that the Belfast Agreement does not forbid the UK (or Ireland) from exercising its right in international law to withdraw from the ECHR.
“The British-Irish Agreement does not refer to the ECHR at all and none of its terms suggest in any way that the UK or Ireland were undertaking to remain member states of the ECHR in perpetuity.”
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has ordered a review into whether the UK should quit the ECHR, while Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has long supported leaving it.
However, responding to the Policy Exchange paper, a Government spokesperson said: “Britain will continue to remain a member of the ECHR”.
TUV leader Jim Allister said the report “confirms the UK can leave ECHR without breaching the Belfast Agreement”.
He said he hopes it will inform public debate on the ECHR and sovereignty in the UK.
“Its careful and detailed analysis confirms what I have argued: that the UK, including Northern Ireland, can withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights without breaching the Belfast Agreement,” he said.
“This report forms part of a growing body of legal analysis, including Rt Hon Suella Braverman MP’s report, Why And How To Leave The European Convention On Human Rights, which reinforces the conclusion that the UK can and should take the necessary steps to withdraw from the ECHR as a sovereign nation and as one.
“I commend the authors for their careful research and clarity of argument. I hope that this report informs serious public debate about the ECHR and sovereignty in the United Kingdom.”
However, Grainne Teggart, Amnesty International UK’s Northern Ireland deputy director, said to “repudiate the ECHR would be a serious breach of international law”.
“The European Convention on Human Rights is the cornerstone of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, the foundation on which Northern Ireland’s peace is built,” she said.
“The Good Friday Agreement isn’t just political rhetoric, it is a bilateral international treaty between the UK and Ireland, fully incorporating the European Convention into Northern Ireland’s legal order.
“Under international law, the UK cannot walk away from these treaty obligations, and domestic political problems or legislative reforms cannot absolve it of these duties.
“To repudiate the ECHR would be a serious breach of international law and of the peace settlement itself – a step no government should ever contemplate.”
