RSI responds to new ‘Troubles’ legacy proposals
25th September 2025
The UK and Irish governments have made some progress by announcing a new agreed framework for addressing the legacy of the conflict in Northern Ireland (NI), but still need to release essential details, Rights & Security International said today.
On Friday, 19 September, the UK government announced that it would, among other things:
- End a scheme that allows people to request and receive immunity from prosecution for crimes related to the conflict often known as the ‘Troubles’;
- ‘Reform’ the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR), which will be renamed as the Legacy Commission;
- Improve the Commission’s engagement with next-of-kin, including through a new ‘judge led Inquisitorial Mechanism’;
- Amend restrictions on disclosing information that the government claims is related to ‘national security’; and
- Introduce new statutory ‘conflicts of interest duties’ to address concerns about former Royal Ulster Constabulary or Police Service of Northern Ireland officers investigating allegations of misconduct, or collusion with paramilitaries, involving former colleagues.
At the same time, the Irish government announced that it would:
- Create a dedicated new policing unit for cross-border cooperation on legacy cases; and
- Financially contribute to the costs of the involvement of victims, survivors and next-of-kin in legacy-related proceedings.
Both governments also re-committed to implementing a 2014 agreement to create an Independent Commission of Information Retrieval, although it is unclear how this body will interact with the planned Legacy Commission.
In our view, these proposals are positive in the sense that they acknowledge the importance of several concerns that victims, survivors, families and human rights groups, including RSI, have long expressed. It appears that these changes could give victims, survivors and their families greater opportunities to understand the truth about what happened to them and their loved ones, while also re-opening other legal processes that could create accountability, such as civil litigation, inquests and the criminal justice system.
However, crucial details are still lacking, and neither government has announced draft legislation for implementing the agreement yet. Further, we remain concerned that the British security services, the military and the Police Service of Northern Ireland could still use ‘national security’ improperly as a way of withholding information they have about what happened during the Troubles.
The UK and Ireland are both legally obligated under the European Convention on Human Rights to carry out transparent, effective investigations of acts such as killings and torture.
The proposals follow UK court judgments finding that the current post-conflict justice regime, controversially created by the Northern Ireland Legacy (Reconciliation and Information Recovery) Act 2023 (Legacy Act) and implemented by the ICRIR, is unlawful due to the conditional immunity provisions, the lack of effective next-of-kin participation in the conduct of the ICRIR’s affairs and the breadth of powers granted to the government to avoid disclosing information by pointing to national security.
RSI has consistently called on the UK government to dismantle the ICRIR as part of the ruling Labour party’s manifesto commitment to ‘repeal and replace’ the Legacy Act. We have published a set of key performance indicators for what the government’s proposed new investigatory body will need to do in order to comply with human rights laws.
RSI will continue to advocate for truth and justice on behalf of victims, survivors and their families.