News

Government betrays Good Friday Agreement on Bill of Rights

06 April 2023

The failure of the UK Government to implement a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland is a betrayal of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, according to civil society organisations in Northern Ireland. On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Agreement, the Human Rights Consortium and 61 other civil society organisations from across Northern Ireland […]

Read More

Illegal Migration Bill – Joint Briefing

29 March 2023

The Human Rights Consortium and the Public Interest Litigation Support (PILS) Project have published a joint briefing on the Illegal Migration Bill condemning it as “immoral, unworkable and  – as identified in its title – illegal”. The Bill would remove the ability to claim asylum for those who enter the UK “irregularly”, fundamentally breaching the […]

Read More

‘5 Tests’ for the Protocol Deal – Press Release

27 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 […]

Read More

NI Civil Society Joint submission to UN Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Committee

23 February 2023

The Human Rights Consortium has worked collaboratively with a number of our member-organisations to develop a joint civil society parallel report to the United Nations in advance of the review of the United Kingdom under the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in 2023.   A range of Northern Ireland civil society […]

Read More

NI Protocol Bill (it’s still kickin’!) – HRC Written Evidence

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. […]

Read More

Retained EU Law Bill – HRC Briefing

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 […]

Read More

ICESCR – Civil Society Shadow report

25 October 2022

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) commits signatory states to uphold a range of rights within their jurisdiction, including the right to an adequate standard of living, the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, work, social security, education and cultural life. As a signatory of ICESCR the United Kingdom is reviewed by […]

Read More

Rights Removal Bill – Gone But Not Forgotten

29 September 2022

We were encouraged to see that the so-called ‘Rights Removal Bill’ (RRB), which would have repealed the Human Rights Act (HRA) and undermined many of our rights protections, has been dropped from the UK Government’s legislative agenda for the foreseeable future. The Bill contained a wide range of proposals intended to discourage rights-based scrutiny of […]

Read More
A blue-toned image of the UK Houses of Parliament overlaid with the text "The Rights Removal Bill / Gone But Not Forgotten" and the Human Rights Consortium logo in the bottom left corner.

The NI Protocol Bill – what is it, and what now?

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

UK LEGISLATION CONDEMNED AS RIGHTS REMOVAL BILL

22 June 2022

The Human Rights Consortium have issued the following statement condemning the introduction in Westminster today of legislation that will remove the Human Rights Act and undermine human rights across the UK. — The UK governments attempts to introduce a Bill to remove and limit the exercise of existing human rights across the UK has been […]

Read More