Blog by Jeremy Perillo, Junior Associate
In early September 2023, the United Kingdom’s (“U.K.”) House of Commons (“Parliament”) passed the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act (“the Act”), intending to promote reconciliation between the U.K. and Northern Ireland given the 30-year conflict known as the Troubles.[1] The Act establishes “an Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, limiting criminal investigations, legal proceedings, inquests, and police complaints.”[2] Given the emotional and physical pain left by the Troubles, Parliament’s latest attempt at creating reconciliation amongst those involved has been received negatively and remains controversial across the island of Ireland.[3]
The Troubles was a political and religious conflict in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s until 1998, when the Good Friday Agreement was signed, thriving “on a rift that existed since the formation of Northern Ireland;” a rift between Catholic nationalists who sought to rid the Crown and reunite the Irish island and Protestant loyalists who wanted Northern Ireland to hold its place within the U.K.[4] In 1998, after more than thirty years of violence and disorder that resulted in roughly 3,500 deaths, the Good Friday Agreement was signed, ostensibly putting an end to the violence of the Troubles.[5] The violence and death fomented during this time cannot be understated, given the deeply provocative warfare engaged at the hands of both the paramilitary groups and British troops. While there have been prosecutions of individuals throughout the years for their participation in various murders of civilians and soldiers, that has come to a stop with the passage of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill. Many investigations remain open in large part because witnesses are dead or unwilling to come forward. The bill grandfathers in prosecutions that have begun at the time of this bill passage, but it prevents “full inquests, criminal prosecutions or civil claims into related crimes from the ‘Troubles’ period.”[6] In essence, it recognizes that because the animosities that existed during the Troubles still exist, witnesses will not come forward. The bill also creates a new Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery which has been set out to “provide information to families, victims and survivors of Troubles-related deaths and serious injury and promote reconciliation.”[7] Despite a deep divide in culture, politics, and religion, all major political parties — Unionist and Nationalist alike — in Northern Ireland remain opposed to this law, a rare sign of unity.[8]
Comparatively, in the span of roughly one hundred days in 1994, some estimates project upwards of one-half million Rwandans were murdered by armed Hutu militias during the Rwandan Civil War.[9] The atrocities were committed by a large population of Rwandans; it is estimated that roughly 200,000 people participated in the murder of thousands of their fellow citizens.[10] Thousands of Rwandans backlogged the justice system, so in an attempt to make prosecutions more efficient, the Rwandan government re-introduced pre-colonial Gacaca courts to promote reconciliation and pursue justice.[11] Gacaca, meaning justice on the grass, amounted to a small claims court in pre-colonial Rwanda, with persons of great integrity being elected to oversee hearings.[12] With the reintroduction of Gacaca, judges were elected by local communities and held community-focused hearings and encouraged ordinary Rwandans to confess “any crimes they may have committed during the genocide and to ask pardon of survivors publicly.”[13] The courts did not hear cases related to the planning of the genocide and typically gave lower sentences if the person on trial was “repentant and sought reconciliation with the community.”[14] During the time the courts were utilized, from 2005 to May 2012, more than 12,000 Gacaca courts tried more than 1.2 million cases throughout the country.[15]
Concerns have been expressed, particularly following the passage of the U.K. Legacy Act that Northern Ireland “is going out of business…it probably will not exist in 10 or 15 years.”[16] This pessimism is rooted in a “palpable sense that nothing in Northern Ireland is working and this bill is kind of emblematic of that.”[17] The U.K. government argues that the Legacy Act “will ‘draw a line’ under the Troubles and allow Northern Ireland to move on,” yet the political parties in Northern Ireland, a collective that is rarely seen as unified, have unanimously opposed this legislation.[18]
Parliament ought to look to, utilize, and support local institutions, like religious organizations, as a means of helping to bring parties together in pursuit of reconciliation. In Rwanda, by comparison, the Catholic Church had a mixed record during and after the genocide. While the church was officially opposed to the ethnic violence, some church leaders took part in the killing of innocent Rwandans.[19] Father Athanase Seromba was among the most prominent examples of killers, as he encouraged 2,000 of his Tutsi parishioners to seek refuge within his church, then ordered a bulldozer to demolish the building, crushing all inside.[20] However, the church, perhaps recognizing the roles it played during the genocide, “rebounded through a process of self-examination and national reconciliation.” Further, Rwanda took a different path than South Africa, which developed a secular “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” that held hearings aimed at airing the truth, and similarly to the Act, recommended amnesty for those that came forward.[21] The Rwandan church organized programs of Scripture study and reconciliation ministry, along with training “diocesan staff members, key parish leaders, and base community animators in community trauma healing, conflict management, Catholic social teaching and human rights.”[22] Over five years following the genocide, three thousand leaders had been trained in the diocese and 20,000 nationwide.[23] Once trained, these leaders sought to help newly released prisoners confess their crimes and ask forgiveness of survivors, in addition to leading examinations of conscience within their communities and encouraging “neighbors and friends to come clean about their conduct during the genocide.”[24]
What better way to aid reconciliation within a fundamentally religious conflict, than by having religious leaders at the forefront of localized reconciliation efforts? That is not to say that that has not been the case in Northern Ireland, but more to the point that any efforts by religious leaders at reconciliation will be hamstrung by the precedence the Act creates. Specifically, various Northern Ireland religious leaders have spoken out against the Act suggesting it “will not achieve any of its purposes” and would disregard decades of work that allows various communities to work together.[25] Many religious leaders in Northern Ireland worked hard to bring about peace during the Troubles, even when their institutions “didn’t fully support those efforts.”[26] For example, religious leaders advised politicians on understanding the potential for peace. Gerry Adams, leader of the Sinn Fein party for much of the Troubles, wrote in his memoir how Father Alec Reid helped him understand what a peaceful solution to the conflict could look like.[27] Religious leaders also offered and advocated for practical recommendations in alleviating the subtle difficulties of the Troubles, such as poverty alleviation and combating alcoholism.[28] Across the various churches of Northern Ireland, violent nationalism promoted by paramilitary groups on both sides was vehemently condemned, but they made sure to keep communication lines open, in an attempt to pave the way to peace talks.[29] Church of Ireland Bishop of Connor, Alan Abernethy, warned in 2008 that “if bridges are not built, Northern Ireland might find itself in a worse situation than it faced during the Troubles.”[30] Flash forward nearly fifteen years, and the concerns Bishop Abernethy expressed are certainly palpable. Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, Eamon Martin, and Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, John McDowell, argued in their joint response to the Act’s passage that the “legacy of the Troubles remains an open wound and the frailest of seams in our political and social life. There is no universal remedy for this great pain, but there can be honesty, integrity, and compassion in trying to find the best way forward.”[31]
In its attempt to “underline” the conflict stemming from the Troubles, Parliament’s current plan does not attempt to engage the local constituencies that the Good Friday Agreement was formulated by, unlike the Rwandan reconciliation system, which engaged local communities to form healing bonds. Just as during the negotiations over the Good Friday Agreement with the Catholic Church, local interest groups and local faith leaders should be engaged to foster reconciliation. The Catholic Church and local church leaders engaged in reconciliation efforts following the Rwandan genocide, and while there was a broader component to Rwanda’s reconciliation strategy (the tribunal), the goal of connecting at a local or community-based level was continuously embraced. Such storied and contentious national trauma requires sincere and in-depth dialogue to heal the bonds broken during the Troubles.
[1] Parliamentary Bills, https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3160 (last visited Oct. 8, 2023).
[2] Id.
[3] Northern Ireland Troubles: Controversy Legacy Bill passes through Commons, BBC (Sept. 6, 2023), https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-66720994.
[4] Rebecca Turkington, Women’s Participation in the Good Friday Agreement Negotiations: A Case Study on Northern Ireland, 338 Inst. for the Stud. of Dipl., (Georgetown Univ., D.C.), 2017, at 2.
[5] Understanding Northern Ireland’s ‘Troubles,’ Module in Understanding the International System, World101, https://world101.cfr.org/understanding-international-system/conflict/understanding-northern-irelands-troubles (last visited Nov. 20, 2023).
[6] Conor Humphries, British Parliament Approves Disputed Northern Ireland Amnesty Bill, Reuters
(Sep. 6, 2023, 1:18 PM), https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/british-parliament-approves-disputed-northern-ireland-amnesty-bill-2023-09-06/.
[7] What will the Commission do?, Subheading to Frequently Asked Questions, Indep. Comm’n for Reconciliation and Info. Recovery, https://icrir.independent-inquiry.uk/about-us/frequently-asked-questions/ (last visited Nov. 20, 2023).
[8] Sky News, Northern Ireland Legacy Bill Approved by MPS – Despite Anger from all Sides on the Island of Ireland, Sky News (Sep. 6, 2023, 11:03 PM), https://news.sky.com/video/northern-ireland-legacy-bill-approved-by-mps-despite-anger-from-all-sides-on-the-island-of-ireland-12956185.
[9] Rwanda: A Brief History of the Country, Outreach Program on the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda and the U.N., https://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/historical-background.shtml (last visited Nov. 20, 2023); see Numbers, Human Rights Watch, https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/rwanda/Geno1-3-04.htm#:~:text=A%20U.N.,at%20least%20one%20half%20million (May 17, 2023, 5:24 AM).
[10] Massacre of the Tutsi Minority, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/rwanda/massacre-of-the-tutsi-minority (last visited Nov. 20, 2023)
[11] Rwanda: A Brief History of the Country, Outreach Program on the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda and the U.N., https://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/historical-background.shtml (last visited Nov. 20, 2023)
[12] Jeffry Odell Korgen, Forgiveness Unbound: Reconciliation Education is Helping Rwanda to Heal, Aᴍᴇʀɪᴄᴀ Mᴀɢᴀᴢɪɴᴇ (Sept. 10, 2007), https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/624/article/forgiveness-unbound.
[13] Id.
[14] U.N. Department of Public Information, The Justice and Reconciliation Process in Rwanda, United Nations
(March 2014), https://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/assets/pdf/Backgrounder%20Justice%202014.pdf
[15] Id.
[16] Kevin Hargaden, Is a law that will stop most prosecutions of killings during ‘The Troubles’ really about protecting British soldiers?, America Magazine (Sept. 15, 2023), https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2023/09/15/northern-irelands-legacy-bill-troubles-246093
[17] Id.
[18] Id.; see Freya McClements, What is the Northern Ireland Troubles Legacy Bill?, The Irish Times (Sept. 7, 2023), https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2023/09/06/northern-ireland-troubles-legacy-bill-what-it-means-for-victims-families/ (demonstrating the unity amongst Northern Ireland’s political parties).
[19] Jeffry Odell Korgen, Forgiveness Unbound: Reconciliation Education is Helping Rwanda to Heal, Aᴍᴇʀɪᴄᴀ Mᴀɢᴀᴢɪɴᴇ (Sept. 10, 2007), https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/624/article/forgiveness-unbound.
[20] Id.
[21] Id. at 2.
[22] Id.
[23] Id.
[24] Id.
[25] Kevin Hargaden, Is a law that will stop most prosecutions of killings during ‘The Troubles’ really about protecting British soldiers?, America Magazine (Sept. 15, 2023), https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2023/09/15/northern-irelands-legacy-bill-troubles-246093
[26] Nukhet Sandal, 20 Years After the Good Friday Agreement, few People Recognize how Northern Ireland’s Religious Leaders Helped Bring Peace, The Washington Post (Apr. 10, 2018), https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/04/10/20-years-after-the-good-friday-agreement-few-people-recognize-how-northern-irelands-religious-leaders-helped-bring-peace/.
[27] Id.
[28] Id.
[29] Id.
[30] Id.
[31] Connla Young, Church Leaders: Legacy Bill ‘Will not Achieve any of its Purposes,’ The Irish News
(Nov. 23, 2022), https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2022/11/23/news/church_leaders_legacy_bill_will_not_achieve_any_of_its_purposes_-2914004/.