City Bar Denounces UK Decision to Continue to Refuse Investigation of Human Rights Lawyer Patrick Finucane’s Murder

The New York City Bar Association “unequivocally denounces the decision of the United Kingdom (UK) government to refuse, once more, to hold a public inquiry into the murder of the noted Northern Ireland human rights lawyer, Patrick Finucane,” the City Bar said in a statement. “Eight years ago, Prime Minister David Cameron conceded that the murder had involved collusion between loyalist paramilitaries and UK security forces. The UK government nonetheless continues to avoid a genuine, thorough, and independent investigation into the Finucane murder, and the systemic collusion that it represents.” 

The statement calls prior investigations “inadequate,” and “repeatedly undermined.” It says that continued refusal to investigate flies in the face of several high court rulings, and “is inconsistent with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which called for the incorporation and implementation of the rights guaranteed in the European Convention of Human Rights.”

The City Bar has long followed the repeated failures of the UK government to deliver justice in this matter, which “represents a further low point in that history,” according to the statement.  The City Bar calls upon the UK government “to put an end to its 31-year-long effort to shirk its legal obligations and finally to institute a fair and robust inquiry into the Finucane murder that accords with its obligations under domestic and international law.”

Read the full statement here: https://bit.ly/3abKo8g