In a letter to The Irish Times, they said rights “should not be conditional upon a requirement to declare Irish citizenship, in line with the guarantees of equality under the Belfast Agreement”.

The letter explains that “in the context of ensuring that human rights continue to be universal in both principle and practice, this may prove to be divisive and unhelpful”.

The letter was signed by the heads of key Irish organisations — the Irish Council for Civil Liberties; FLAC; the Children’s Law Centre; and the Children’s Rights Alliance — and the NI-based Committee on the Administration of Justice and Human Rights Consortium.

The letter has also been signed by solicitor Michael Farrell and a range of academics, including Dr Suzanne Egan of UCD Centre for Human Rights, Shane Kilcommins of UL School of Law, Professor Siobhán Mullally of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway, as well as Colin Harvey of Queen’s University Belfast and Rory O’Connell of Ulster University.