Mr. Padraig Yeates:

Thank you. I will just read out our statement and then obviously we are happy to answer any questions members may have. Our position is that we welcome the success of the Good Friday Agreement in ending the communal conflict on this island but there remains an urgent need to address the need of victims and their families and for wider society to know the truth and strengthen reconciliation. This is particularly the case for the earliest and bloodiest years of the Troubles when most of the deaths and serious injuries occurred. People with this information are dying while new British legislation threatens to pull down the shutters on future investigations, including inquests and criminal prosecutions, despite opposition from all the political parties in Northern Ireland and in the South.

We propose the Truth Recovery Process as an option to the courts for families to access the truth of what happened to their loved ones, should they wish to use it. We are encouraged by models of truth recovery developed in post-conflict societies elsewhere such as Chile, Colombia and South Africa. We had speakers from all of those countries at our own very successful conference recently on 1 April in Queen's University Belfast. We believe, as a result of that interaction and of our own experience, that the truth recovery process would enable victims here and their families to request information from former combatants and expedite access to State records and compensation. In return for their amnesty, former combatants would have to act in good faith and commit fully to engaging with those who have suffered by their actions. This would require full disclosure on their part of their own involvement in all of the actions for which they are claiming immunity. They could not provide information implicating other individuals but the process would facilitate engagement by groups of former combatants as well as by individuals.

Former combatants would include members of the security forces and paramilitary organisations who were involved in the period of the Troubles covered by the 1998 Belfast Good Friday Agreement. Cases would be dealt with through a mediation process overseen by senior members of the British and Irish judiciaries, or alternatively by an international chair agreed by the two sovereign Governments. The scheme would have two divisions. The first is a justice facilitation unit which would mediate between victims and former combatants and provide mechanisms that would allow them to engage directly with each other, as and when required. The second division is a truth recovery unit which would examine each case forensically. It would collect and verify information for use as required in the mediation process.

We believe that our proposal is compliant with Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights and we have received a legal opinion to that effect by Mr. Michael Lynn SC and Ms Céile Varley, barrister at law, which was provided under the Free Legal Aid Commission’s, FLAC, Public Interest Law Alliance, PILA, project. Like many voluntary groups, I would like to thank FLAC for providing this very important resource to civil society.

The aim of the truth recovery process is to enable both sides, victims and former combatants, to reconcile on the facts of the case. We believe very strongly that without such an agreement, any further forms of reconciliation are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to achieve, not alone between individuals but within the wider community.

The process would provide for a speedier and fuller examination of each event than is possible through the courts, facilitate the wider process of reconciliation in divided communities, and create a greater understanding and acknowledgement of the damage caused by the Troubles. The process would require the fullest co-operation of the Irish and UK Governments if it is to provide total disclosure, as envisaged in the Independent Commission on Information Retrieval, ICIR, section of the Stormont House agreement. Without the leadership of both Governments the necessary amendments to the ICIR will not be possible. If agreement could be reached on mechanisms to retrieve the remains of victims who disappeared in the Troubles, surely the same approach can be used for recovering the truth about what happened to all those who have suffered.