Opinion

British government cannot ignore top judge on legacy cases

Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan. Picture by Paul Faith, Press Association 
Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan. Picture by Paul Faith, Press Association  Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan. Picture by Paul Faith, Press Association 

THERE must be something fundamentally wrong in a society where its Lord Chief Justice (LCJ) has to intervene sharply, not once but twice, on a matter of huge human and political significance because of the failure of those with the direct political responsibility to address the issue to hand.

The chief justice - the wary guardian of judicial independence and separation from day-to-day political issues which are potentially divisive, as is the case on this occasion - has broken with a very old convention and placed the integrity of the judicial system centre-stage in order to bring justice to a group of people long, long-denied it for reasons of political expediency by the state.

For the second time the north’s LCJ, Sir Declan Morgan, has spoken on the need to resolve the legacy of the past and specifically in the area, which directly affects him and the justice system – coroner’s inquests.

These unprecedented interventions not only reflect the gravity of the failure to resolve the past they also reflect the importance of resolving it to allow further political progress to be made.

Commenting on the failure Sir Declan Morgan said: “We cannot move on while we remain under the shadow of the past. Nor should we”.

In this instance the ‘shadow of the past” is 57 inquests into almost 100 killings involving civilians, IRA members, members of the British Crown forces and loyalists.

And the blockage to the hearing of these inquests is the British government’s failure to accept its responsibility to resource the process that is required for the hearings to be conducted.

The Lord Chief Justice is not criticising for the sake of it. In these changed and changing times he realises failure to hear these inquests is damaging the justice system over which he presides in the eyes of not just the families affected but the communities they come from and by extension, the police are also being damaged because of the position they have been placed in by the British government’s stance.

The justice and the policing systems were seen as instruments of oppression during the conflict. But now the courts are at the centre of the quest for truth by relatives, ably assisted by Pat Finucane influenced human rights lawyers, with judges less inclined to service the needs of the British government seeking to protect its war-time policies which hang like the sword of Damocles over its head.

And not for the first time the British government is suiting its own interests by refusing to agree the plan that Sir Declan Morgan proposed seven months ago which was supported by the Relatives for Justice, RFJ, the Committee for the Administration of Justice, the Pat Finucane Centre, Sinn Féin, the SDLP and the Alliance Party. And opposed by the unionist parties and the British government.

The British government has washed its hands of its legal obligation by claiming it is the responsibility of the north’s executive.

But the Director of RFJ Mark Thompson said: “As a signatory to the European Convention it is the sole responsibility of the UK government to ensure that Article 2 compliant inquests are held into these killings. Neither Martin McGuinness or Arlene Foster sign the Convention nor do they have the authority to ratify Convention rights”.

And the reason for this stance by the British government is because it is protecting its armed forces, its intelligence agencies and informers – all of whom were involved in many of the killings yet to have inquests.

Inquests into these killings, which as the LCJ said is a legal duty by the Coroner’s courts, will highlight the involvement by the British government’s intelligence agencies in the state approved murders using legal forces - the Crown forces and illegal forces – loyalists and informers.

And it is these damaging revelations which the British government are trying to keep out of the public arena even though it has been well-established for decades that the British government used its armed forces and ran loyalist murder gangs.

“Hugely disappointing”, is how Sir Declan Morgan described the overall situation. “Hugely worrying” I would say is how the British government view his presence in this matter.

Not someone the British government can manipulate or ignore.