Troubles

Human rights campaigners have urged Sir Keir Starmer to repeal the previous UK government's controversial legacy law as soon as possible. Labour's manifesto included a commitment to “repeal and replace” the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023, which is currentl

Labour would scrap the UK government's controversial legacy law, the party has said in its manifesto. The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023, which the Irish government is challenging in a rare interstate application to the European Court of Human Rights, ended most legal

The UK's controversial new legacy law has come into force, bringing a premature end to dozens of inquests and investigations related to killings during the Troubles. The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023, which the Irish government is challenging in a rare interstate app

The UK government operated a "widespread, systematic, and systemic" practice of impunity that protected security forces from sanction during the Troubles, according to a new report. The International Expert Panel on Impunity was convened by the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights (NCHR), based at the

The Attorney General for Northern Ireland has ordered new inquests for victims of the McGurk’s Bar massacre, which will likely be prevented from going ahead due to the UK government’s controversial new legacy law. Loyalist paramilitaries bombed the pub on 4 December 1971, killing 15 civi

Northern Ireland’s Court of Appeal has quashed a man’s convictions for the murder of four British Army officers and membership of a proscribed organisation following its conclusion that the verdict reached in his 1976 trial was unsafe. Delivering judgment for the Court of Appeal, Lady Ch

The UK government has announced plans to develop an official history of the Troubles, with up to five historians to be granted privileged access to UK state archives. Lord Bew, from a northern unionist background, and Dr Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid, from Cork, have been picked by ministers t

A new report on "state impunity" for human rights violations during the Troubles is to be launched in Dublin next week. The Norwegian Centre for Human Rights at the University of Oslo convened an international expert panel on impunity in response to the announcement of the UK government's controvers

Northern Ireland's Court of Appeal has quashed a conviction for murder in relation to the 1975 Forkhill landmine attack following a referral by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC). Patrick Thompson received a life sentence with a 30-year minimum term for the murder of four British Army offic

The Attorney General for Northern Ireland has ordered a fresh inquest into the killing of Official IRA man Joe McCann, which is unlikely to take place due to the UK government's controversial new legacy law. Mr McCann was shot and killed at the age of 24 in the Markets area of Belfast on 15 April 19

The long-running investigation into the alleged Provisional IRA informer codenamed “Stakeknife” has published its interim report. The Operation Kenova report highlights the lack of a legal framework to properly govern the use of agents during the Troubles, in which agent handling was see

The UK government has confirmed it will appeal a ruling by the High Court in Belfast that a controversial legacy law is in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. The court ruled last week that the conditional immunity scheme under the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation)

An anonymous British soldier has been imprisoned by a Scottish court for six months for contempt of court after he failed to appear at a coroner’s inquest into the deaths of three men during a military operation in Northern Ireland in 1991. The petitioner, the Presiding Coroner of Northern Ire

Conditional immunity from prosecutions relating to Troubles-era crimes is in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights, the High Court in Belfast has ruled.

The Irish government has formally lodged its inter-state case against the UK with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The application, challenging the UK's controversial Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023, was lodged on 17 January 2024 and registered under no. 185