Ms Sin?ad Gibney:

Maybe I will pull it back a little to remind everyone why the equivalence of rights is so important. The importance of it is that peace on this island is supported and bolstered by the fact that we have this equivalence of rights. That is why it was enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement. The idea is that it should be a similar experience for everybody living on the island, in terms of how they can realise their rights and what they can expect to enjoy in terms of non-discrimination and equality. It has been a really positive force over the past 20 odd years in driving, particularly on this side of the Border, our equality and rights standards up to a really positive level, and we are at a relatively equivalent level.

As commissions, we all operate in the jurisdiction we are in. We engage, obviously, as the three commissions here, but also with other equivalent commissions and jurisdictions across Europe and across the world. We have no problem in understanding that there might be different laws in place, different Acts, etc., that inform those rights and equality issues within the jurisdiction we are in. Then there are some that govern across regions, as we have thus far enjoyed within the EU. None of us expected, obviously, that the UK would ultimately withdraw from the EU and much of those frameworks were built on the assumption of that continued UK membership.

We will continue to work together as we always have. The joint committee did an excellent job in the four years from the 2016 referendum right up to actual withdrawal. During that time we published a series of six different publications which I urge the Senator to read because they go back to those fundamental elements around justice arrangements, citizenship, and the common travel area which is really problematic, shaky as it is and something that we have all said should be enshrined in legislation.

We have always worked together in those contexts and that we are in different jurisdictions does not stop us collaborating. Obviously, there is a very special arrangement in terms of the joint committee because we are established in a treaty, as the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, NIHRC, and Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, as being members of that but also within the equality commission and the dedicated mechanism framework. We use those frameworks that are available to us to work together.

In our appearances in front of the executive committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly, there were some voices saying the UK will perhaps advance rights to appoint further. I welcome that. If that is the case, it is great, but our biggest concern is that equivalence is maintained and that we see that balance. We will support our colleagues from both commissions in Northern Ireland in making sure that, specifically, the six directives committed to will continue to be respected. We all have to monitor that, and we will do whatever we can to help with that monitoring. Also, more broadly, we must ensure that rights and equality standards, even though they might be set through different legislative measures, maintain parity, because that is crucial for peace on this island.