A new report by Professor Colin Murray of Newcastle University and Professor Aoife O’Donoghue of Queen’s University Belfast rebuts claims promoted by UK think tanks over the summer.

The report, published yesterday by the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), features a foreword from former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain, who warns that reneging on the ECHR “would send a terrible signal to the rest of the world” about UK adherence to treaty obligations.

DLP leader Claire Hanna MP also provides a foreword, emphasising that “attempts to diminish or dismiss the binding role of the ECHR within the Good Friday Agreement are legally flawed and politically reckless”.

Commenting on the report, Professor Colin Murray said: “Our analysis finds claims that UK withdrawing from ECHR would not breach GFA are not credible given the GFA’s text.

“Our explainer highlights the GFA’s open-ended commitment and plain text commitment by the UK to incorporate the ECHR into Northern Ireland law.”

Professor O’Donoghue added: “This is not an obligation which can be provided for by the UK developing another set of rights protections, but to the ECHR itself — because those rights protections are backed by the oversight of the European Court of Human Rights.

“Enforceable rights protections for everyone, based on international oversight, were a key part of Northern Ireland’s future when the people of Ireland, north and south, voted on the GFA in 1998, and they remain as essential today.”

The report sets out how the GFA contains an express commitment by the UK to embed the ECHR into Northern Ireland law, providing direct access to the courts and remedies where their rights are breached.

This commitment cannot be replaced by an alternative “homegrown” set of rights, because the obligation is specifically to the ECHR and to the international oversight provided by the European Court of Human Rights, they say.