23/06/2021
Submission by the Equality Commission and NI Human Rights Commission
The EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 empowers the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland and NI Human Rights Commission with new functions to monitor, advise, report on, promote, and enforce the implementation of Article 2(1) of the Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol (‘the Protocol’) to the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement.
In accordance with these functions, the Commissions provided a joint Submission to the Introductory Inquiry into the Operation of the Protocol by the House of Lords Sub-Committee on the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland (pdf, June 2021)
The Commissions welcomed the publication of the House of Lords European Affairs Sub-Committee report (pdf, July 2021) and we welcome that the Committee:
- has recommended that the UK Government and the EU must develop and expand formal mechanisms for long-term engagement with all sectors of Northern Ireland civic society, including with women and young people;
- acknowledged the importance of the provisions in Article 2(i) and their intention to return them with more focus in the Autumn;
- raised that the UK/ EU urgently need to agree practical solutions in relation to easements for pet travel (including assistance dogs) between GB and NI.
Further information