Established in 2008, The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, US Congress, is charged with promoting, defending and advocating for international human rights as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other relevant human rights instruments. 

On 19 November 2024 the Commission held a hearing on the pending British government inquiry into collusion in the brutal murder of the human rights lawyer Patrick Finucane.

In 1989 Patrick Finucane, a renowned Irish human rights lawyer, was shot to death in front of his wife and children by Loyalist paramilitaries.  It has been long suspected that British State agencies colluded in this crime and actively assisted the killers.  As part of the negotiations accompanying the Good Friday Agreement, the British government agreed to conduct a public judicial inquiry into the Finucane murder.  It has not yet honoured this commitment.  The U.S. Congress has repeatedly called on Britain to conduct a full, independent, public judicial inquiry into the Finucane murder (H. Con. Res. 20, 110th; H. Res. 740, 109th).  In 2020 over 25 members of the US Congress wrote to the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, urging him “to establish an independent public inquiry into state collusion in the murder of human rights attorney Patrick Finucane.”

On 11 September 2024, the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland announced that a statutory inquiry would be held into Mr. Finucane’s murder.  That decision was welcomed by his family, who described it as “a watershed moment in the difficult subject of legacy.” Little is known, as yet, about the terms of reference or who will preside over the taking of evidence, but the Finucane family continues to negotiate with the British Government to ensure that the inquiry be as wide-ranging and thorough as possible.  Despite the extensive information that has come to light about the activities of State-backed paramilitaries in Northern Ireland throughout the conflict, very few in positions of influence and control have ever been called to account for their actions.  The Finucane case may now, finally, allow for a proper public examination of the evidence.

The four surviving members of Pat Finucane’s family testified about the 35-year process of seeking justice, and their hopes and objectives for the upcoming public inquiry.

Professor Brian Dooley, Mitchell Institute Honorary Professor of Practice and Senior Advisor at Human Rights First, provided a Statement Submitted for the Record, for the hearing.

The Statement references the report published in 2024 Bitter Legacy: State Impunity in the Northern Ireland Conflict, written by a panel of international human rights experts, including Professor Dooley, and convened by the Norwegian Center for Human Rights at the request of the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) and the Pat Finucane Centre (PFC).  The report concluded that the British government operated a “widespread, systematic, and systemic” practice of impunity protecting security forces from sanction during the conflict in Northern Ireland.

In the Statement, Human Rights First urges the British government to stand by its promises to repeal the Legacy Act, and to finally give the Finucane family the proper inquiry to which they have a right.  They also urge the British and Irish governments to implement an independent international commission to investigate impunity and other issues related to the conflict overall.

Read the Statement here.

The recording of the hearing is available here.

 

Professor Brian Dooley

Brian Dooley is an Honorary Professor of Practice at the Mitchell Institute and a Senior Advisor at Human Rights First, a U.S.- based NGO.  He specialises in working with Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) in conflict and post-conflict contexts, and was senior advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on HRDs Mary Lawlor 2020-2023.  His most recent work has been in the Hong Kong revolution and on Russia’s war on Ukraine.  He has also written two books related to the conflict in Northern Ireland, including a comparative study of the civil rights movements in the U.S. and Northern Ireland.