Consultative Group on the Past

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The Consultative Group on the Past ( English for "Advisory Group on the Past") was a commission of inquiry set up by the British government , which between June 2007 and January 2009 developed proposals for the societal reconciliation of the Northern Ireland conflict.

history

On June 22, 2007, the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to the British government, Peter Hain , announced the establishment of the so-called Consultative Group on the Past , whose final report was intended to propose practical solutions for further reconciliation in Northern Ireland. He appointed Denis Bradley , former chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board , and Lord Eames , former Archbishop of Armagh , as joint chairmen of the commission, with an exclusively advisory role should represent equally all groups affected by the Northern Ireland conflict. The eight-member commission called on Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari and the South African lawyer and co-founder of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Brian Currin as international experts .

The only relevant political actor that refused to cooperate was the IRA . She gave no reasons for this, but comments from her environment suggested that she questioned the goodwill, neutrality and independence of the investigative commission, since the British government had set it up and given its mandate to investigate. Bradley expressed understanding, but still advised her to cooperate.

The Eames-Bradley Consultative Group , as the British and Irish media also called it, published its final report on January 28, 2009. Among the most important of the more than 30 proposals were the amnesty of individual members of terrorist organizations with the consent of affected family members of their victims who are willing to testify before non-judicial commissions (as opposed to a general amnesty ); the investigation into possible collusion in legal proceedings and "ethnic cleansing" carried out by the IRA on the border with Ireland; and the end of all police, judicial and other public investigations with the exception of those concerning Bloody Sunday and the killings of Rosemary Nelson , Robert Hamill and Billy Wright .

Representatives of various victims' associations took offense at the Commission's proposal that the immediate relatives of everyone who died directly from political violence, i.e. perpetrators and victims alike,  should receive a payment of £ 12,000. According to the Commission, these payments should not act as compensation in the legal sense but as social recognition of the suffering of relatives. The Consultative Group estimated these payments to the relatives of the more than 3,000 dead in the Northern Ireland conflict to be around £ 40 million and for the implementation of all proposals almost £ 300 million. Unionist and Republican parties alike condemned the proposal, as did the then First Minister Peter Robinson . David Trimble refused financial compensation for a death, but followed the Commission's idea.

Hain's successor as Secretary of State, Shaun Woodward , announced on February 25, 2009 that he would waive the recognition payments altogether. He called the proposal an "interesting idea", which he could not implement due to a lack of political consensus.

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ cf. N / A : Group to deal with troubled past , from: BBC Online , June 22, 2007. Accessed March 8, 2009.
  2. ↑ above: IRA rules out meeting with group from: BBC Online , February 25, 2009. Accessed March 8, 2009.
  3. ↑ cf. N / A : Troubles group makes IRA appeal , from: BBC Online , March 5, 2009. Accessed March 8, 2009.
  4. ↑ cf. Kearney, Vincent: Dealing with wounds of the past , 2009.
  5. ↑ cf. N / A : NI Troubles legacy to cost £ 300m , from: BBC Online , January 28, 2009. Accessed March 8, 2009.
  6. ↑ Finn, Simon: Proposals are offensive and disturbing, says Robinson , from: Irish Times Online , January 24, 2009. Accessed March 8, 2009.
  7. ↑ cf. N / A : Trimble rejects 'offensive' Troubles payment plan , from Irish Times Online January 24, 2009. Accessed March 8, 2009.
  8. ↑ above: Woodward rules out Troubles cash , from: BBC Online , February 25, 2009. Accessed March 8, 2009.