29 September 2023
The Windsor Framework, and the Protocol that came before it, were developed and negotiated between the EU and the UK to manage the new regulatory framework in Northern Ireland resulting from the UK’s exit from the EU, while maintaining the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement commitments to cross-border cooperation and to maintaining the Common Travel Area between […]
Read More27 February 2023
The Brexit and Human Rights Working Group, convened and chaired by the Human Rights Consortium, has released their ‘5 Tests’ for the Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol Deal, focusing on the key commitments on rights and equality protections contained within the Protocol. A fair Protocol deal to protect human rights must: Make no changes to Article 2 […]
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23 November 2022
As the law-breaking NI Protocol Bill continues its steady passage through the House of Lords, their EU Affairs Sub-Committee wrapped up its scrutiny of the Bill by publishing all written evidence received and sending a letter to the Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly MP, outlining their concerns with the Bill and the engagement they had undertaken. […]
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27 October 2022
The Consortium recently shared our briefing on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill with MPs in advance of the second reading of the Bill in the House of Commons on the 25th of October. Unfortunately, the Bill continues in what is now a well-worn pattern of attempts to undermine existing standards of protections and […]
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08 July 2022
We in the Human Rights Consortium were extremely disappointed to see that Liz Truss’ proposed Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which outlines dramatic alterations to the Protocol while conferring powers to UK Government Ministers to amend or disapply most Articles of the Protocol at their discretion, passed the second reading stage in the Commons on the […]
Read More 16 June 2022
At the beginning of June, we submitted evidence to the follow-up inquiry on the impact of the Protocol carried out by House of Lords Sub-Committee on the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland. This evidence has now been published, and you can find it on the Sub-Committee’s website. Within this submission, we raised a number of serious […]
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27 May 2022
The Queen’s Speech and Human Rights The Queen’s Speech opening a new session of Parliament was delivered on the 10 May. It presented a lengthy list of legislative proposals that the government intends to take forward in this next session of Parliament. Unfortunately, the speech contained some very unwelcome announcements from a human rights perspective. We […]
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17 December 2021
The Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland (referred to as ‘the Protocol’) is a Protocol (or a formal international agreement) of the Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union (known as the UK Withdrawal Agreement). As a legal document the Protocol recognizes the unique situation of […]
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18 November 2021
Nearly a year after the end of the transition period (31 December 2020), the Northern Ireland/Ireland Protocol is at the centre of continuing political instability and divisions. While the United Kingdom (UK) and European Union (EU) appear on face value to be united in their desire to overcome their ongoing disagreements regarding the Protocol, the […]
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15 March 2021
After a very protracted process the EU and UK finally agreed to the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) on Christmas Eve 2020. The TCA document itself runs to over 1,200 pages and contains many important elements that relate to the future UK approach to human rights. To distil some of these elements the Consortium has […]
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