Good Friday Agreement Committee to Seek Legal Advice on How Irish State Can Force Britain to Uphold International Agreements
Good Friday Agreement Committee to Seek Legal Advice on How Irish State Can Force Britain to Uphold International Agreements
At the Ballymurphy Massacre hearing at the Good Friday Agreement Committee today Aontú Leader Peadar Tóibín TD has proposed that the Committee seeks legal advice in relation to what options exist in International Law for the Irish Government to force Britain to adhere to the international agreements that they have signed such as the Stormont House Agreement and to prevent Britain in blocking families paths to the courts to achieve justice.
An Teachta Tóibín stated;
“I have been following the Ballymurphy Massacre Campaign for the last 2 decades. I salute the resilience of the Ballymurphy families and their campaign. It shocks me that it has taken 50 years to achieve Justice
The victims and survivors were wronged 50 years ago. They were defamed by the British Government. They were denied the truth up to last week. Now they are being denied the pathway to Justice.
“I think its great that the whole political spectrum has come out so strong in support of the Ballymurphy campaign. However one of the best tributes we, in the Dáil, can make to the Ballymurphy Families, is to ensure that no other campaign, such as Kelly’s Bar, Springhill and the victims of Dublin and Monaghan Bombings and the Glenanne gang no longer have to walk the lonely road to truth and justice alone.
“Also International Agreements between Ireland and Britain and between the parties in the north are increasingly not worth the paper that they are written on. Any nation state reneging on an international agreement cannot be trusted. The murder of innocent victims by the British Army was the action of a rogue state. The actions reneging from International Agreements is the behaviour of a rogue state. Seeking to block a citizen’s pathway to justice today is the behaviour of a rogue state”.
“I proposed that the Good Friday Agreement Committee seeks legal advice in relation to what options exist in International Law for the Irish Government to force Britain to adhere to the international agreements that they have signed such as the Stormont House Agreement and to prevent Britain in blocking families paths to the courts to achieve justice”.