Research co-authored by the University of Liverpool has highlighted the necessity of ensuring important equality and human rights protections in Northern Ireland are upheld following Brexit.
Dr Clare Rice from the Department of Politics, together with academics from four other universities, conducted independent analysis examining the impact of Brexit and the risk of widening gaps in rights across the island of Ireland.
The expert report was commissioned by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (human rights institutions across the island of Ireland).
People in Northern Ireland already have fewer equality and human rights protections in some areas than their counterparts in Ireland and Great Britain. This analysis is warning that this disparity will widen further if the UK Government does not act.
The report has urged policy makers to ensure that significant rights and equality areas such as gender reassignment, accessibility, pay transparency reporting, work-life balance and age discrimination in access to goods, facilities and services do not fall between the cracks following Brexit.
Article 2 of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, despite providing some significant protections for rights, suffers from a number of limitations, according to the report. For example, Article 2 is not under the direct supervision of European institutions so the future is uncertain in terms of what might happen to equality-based rights as EU law continues to develop.
The report recommended that the Irish Government, the Northern Ireland Executive, and UK Government work to enhance and harmonise equality and human rights protections on the island of Ireland, aligned to their respective remits, and make a clear commitment to working towards ensuring rights are consistent.
The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission have made a series of recommendations based on the research, and will now seek to meet with government officials to highlight the report’s findings to ensure that equality and human rights continue to be protected and strengthened in Northern Ireland.
Commenting on the report, Dr Rice said: “It’s really important that we make sure that significant rights and equality protections don’t fall through any cracks in legislation. That’s why the recommendations of this research are crucial to ensure everyone in Northern Ireland benefits from the same rights and equality protections in the post-Brexit landscape.”
You can read the full report ‘The Impact of Brexit on the Divergence of Rights and Best Practice on the Island of Ireland’ here: European Union Developments in Equality and Human Rights: The Impact of Brexit on the Divergence of Rights and Best Practice on the Island of Ireland (ihrec.ie).