• The UK government passed its controversial legacy and reconciliation bill through the House of Commons on the 6^th of September this year
• The bill recently became law after receiving Royal Assent on the 19^th of September
• This law would provide immunity for people who murdered others during the Troubles (a period of conflict in Northern Ireland between 1968 to 1998). 
• The law has been widely opposed by all five major political parties in Northern Ireland, human activists around the world, plus thousands of victims’ families.

The Troubles (1968-1998) was a violent conflict between the Loyalists (people who wanted to stay in the UK) and Republicans (people who wanted to join the Republic of Ireland). The Loyalists, also called ‘Unionists’, were overwhelmingly Protestant and were enabled by the British army and Irish forces (including the RIC and USC). Some of these men recruited would make use of militant techniques to control civilians and incite fear. The Republicans, also called ‘nationalists’, were mostly Catholic and were enabled by the IRA – a force that included radical paramilitaries who would partake in a similar violence. This resulted in warfare involving street fighting, sensational bombings, sniper attacks, roadblocks, and attacks on unarmed civilians. This turmoil lasted for three decades. After a peace treaty – called the Good Friday Agreement – was signed in 1998, the British and Irish governments managed to bring an end to the fighting. However, it is important to remember that so many innocent lives were lost during the Troubles, and the grief and trauma their families are carrying will not just come to a clean end in the same way.

With about 3,500 people killed and 40,000 people injured in the conflict, there is an overwhelming feeling of victims and survivors that major justice should be enacted. However the government so far has failed to provide the necessary initiatives to enact this accountability. Meaning that so many of the victims and families who’ve suffered have had to sit silent whilst their trauma goes unacknowledged, and their perpetrators roam free. This September, the UK’s Troubles’ bill became law on the 19^th after it received Royal Assent. It aims to grant immunity to all the murderers and assaulters in return for information about their crimes. This decision would essentially mute the cries for justice of thousands of families in Ireland, and all under the guise of “reconciliation”. 

The BBC accounts the story of Majella O’Hare, who was 12 years old, was shot dead by a British soldier in County Armagh. Her brother is still seeking justice for her.

Peter and Jane McKearney were murdered in their own home by two loyalist gunmen. The BBC interviewed one of the sons – Jim – who was twenty at the time when he found his mother lying in the hallway with 11 bullet wounds in her body, and his father in the kitchen with 18. There was nothing he could do to save them. He and his two siblings are still waiting on justice for them.

Sky News documents how Patsy Gillespie, from Derry, was strapped into a van by the IRA and forced to drive a bomb into a British Army checkpoint. The bomb was triggered by remote control and Patsy was killed along with five soldiers. There would have been more victims if it were not for Patsy who bravely shouted warnings at the other troops to get away. Kathleen, his wife, says that the legislation will essentially condone the atrocities that were done to her husband. She pleads for his justice.

All these stories, and so many others, have a common message; these victims were defenceless civilians who died at the hands of armed radicals. The basic right to life had been violated for them. And the basic right to seek justice is now being violated for their families. 

According to the BBC, political parties, victim unions and a Belfast law firm will continue to oppose the legislation. The next steps are said to consist of legal challenges and reviews for bill amendments. “It will now be over to the courts to right this historic wrong,” Gráinne Teggart –  the Northern Ireland deputy director for Amnesty – says in a press release. He continues: “Today marks a dark day for justice.” 

Thousands of families have already had to fight decades for the truth, for justice, and for solace. 

And this law has just made that fight even longer.