Mr. Les Allamby:

To recap quickly, Annex 1 of the Belfast Agreement affirmed the commitment to human rights, to incorporate the convention in terms of direct access to the courts and remedies for breaches of the convention, including powers to override Assembly legislation. That was done through the UK Human Rights Act and the Northern Ireland Act which subsequently enshrined the requirement for the Assembly to ensure its legislation was compatible with the convention. There are a number of checks and balances to ensure that happens, both by way of prevention and cure. For example, the Human Rights Commission and the Attorney General can offer advice on the status of legislation and whether it is compatible with the convention. If the Assembly were to go ahead and enact legislation that was contrary to the convention, the Secretary of State would have powers to override it. To date, the Secretary of State has never had to exercise these powers.

Also included in the Belfast Agreement was a provision for the commission to consult and advise on the scope of a Bill of Rights for defining in Westminster legislation supplementary to provisions included in the convention, to reflect the particular circumstances of Northern Ireland. For us, that is clear evidence that adherence to convention rights is not to be trampled down. There are considerable ramifications for the Belfast Agreement. The three United Kingdom national human rights institutions have recently signalled to the Human Rights Council that the Act is a force for good and that the current proposals have ramifications, both internationally and domestically, for devolved administrations. This extends beyond Northern Ireland to Scotland and Wales.

The St. Andrews Agreement of 2006 reaffirmed that human rights and equality were at its heart. The Stormont House Agreement of December 2014 also made references to having proper regard to the fundamental rights protected by the convention, in terms of any resolution of the outstanding parading issues and the need to take appropriate steps to improve the way the legacy inquest function was conducted and, in particular, to comply with Article 2 on right to life requirements to ensure a proper, independent process was put in place for investigations into deaths in Northern Ireland.

Human rights are in the DNA of the Belfast Agreement and subsequent agreements. It is an international treaty which has been lodged at the United Nations by the two sovereign Governments, both of which are custodians of it. That means that, as articulated, the proposals are clearly matters for the Irish Government. Both commissions have welcomed the interventions made to date by it. I ask the committee to reinforce the message the Irish Government has already given that any proposal subsequently made must take into account the ramifications for the Agreement and be mindful of the international obligations within it and beyond when it is sought to make changes to the UK Human Rights Act.