Human rights protections contained within the 1998 Good Friday agreement are “inviolable” and cannot be tampered with due to Brexit, Ireland’s foreign minister has warned.
Speaking before meeting Britain’s Northern Ireland secretary James Brokenshire in Dublin on Tuesday, Charlie Flanagan cautioned against moves by the British government to dilute the human rights element of the agreement that brought devolved government to the region, as well as a number of cross-border institutions.
Flanagan stressed that the protections of human rights contained in the agreement were inviolable as part of a UN-recognised international treaty.
“The human rights aspects of the Good Friday agreement are a really important part of what we need to preserve,” he said. “It is essential that none of the human rights protections or frameworks underpinned by the Good Friday agreement are disturbed by any changes that are consequent from a Brexit agreement.
“This is regardless of whether or not the UK remains within the European convention on human rights or not [post-Brexit]. It is important to remember that the Good Friday agreement is an international treaty, registered with the UN. I hope that all sides understand that this means. Its provisions – all of them – are inviolable.”
The Fine Gael-led minority government in Dublin is concerned about the implications of the UK pulling out of the European convention on human rights, and its possible impact on the Good Friday peace deal.
In his speech in Galway on Monday evening, Flanagan said: “Brexit is a challenge for this country of the most significant kind. But ... Ireland has faced and met challenges of this magnitude in the past – some of them in the very recent past – and we will meet the challenges of Brexit.
“The government has been working on its response since well before the UK even voted on the Brexit referendum. We have been engaged in a mammoth diplomatic task. I have had over 150 meetings with ministers and senior officials around the EU and beyond explaining Ireland’s unique concerns and pressing for our priorities to be accommodated. These are: our citizens, our economy, our common travel area with the UK, maintaining the invisible border with Northern Ireland, and the positive future direction of the EU.“
Meanwhile, Brokenshire emphasised that he wanted to find practical ways to prevent a hard border emerging as a result of the UK leaving the European Union.
Trade and travel across the whole of Ireland as well as over the Irish Sea post-Brexit will be as frictionless as possible, Brokenshire said.
Flanagan, speaking alongside the Irish taoiseach Enda Kenny, will co-chair a second major conference on Brexit at Dublin Castle this Friday, which will bring together political parties from across the island as well as other sectoral groups ranging from the farming community to the trade unions. Unionist parties in Northern Ireland will boycott the conference.
