State Impunity and Injustice

State Impunity and Injustice: Northern Ireland, Britain, and the Fight for Accountability

Monday 30 June 2025, 18:00 – 20:00
St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, Bishopsgate, London
Followed by a drinks reception

This public panel event will examine how state impunity operates – and is resisted – across multiple contexts of harm and abuse in both Northern Ireland and Britain. These include conflict-related killings, torture and ill-treatment, deaths in custody, institutional neglect, and other failures of state and corporate accountability.

The event will be structured around two panels:

Panel One: Northern Ireland – The Bitter Legacy, Pseudo-Inquests and the Sean Brown Case

Introduced by Paul O’Connor, Director, Pat Finucane Centre

The first panel will focus on legacy issues in Northern Ireland, drawing on The Bitter Legacy, a major international report published in 2024 which concluded that the UK operated a “widespread, systematic and systemic” practice of impunity during the conflict. The panel will examine the legal challenges in the Sean Brown case – whose 1997 murder remains unresolved – and the broader consequences for access to truth, accountability and justice. The panel will also discuss the implications of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act, including the UK Government’s planned introduction of a 'pseudo-inquest' model to replace legacy inquests.

Panel Two: State-Related Deaths, Inquests and Accountability in Britain

Introduced by Daniel Holder, Director, Committee on the Administration of Justice

The second panel will explore how similar patterns of impunity play out in the investigation of deaths in custody and other deaths in Britain – such as Grenfell and Hillsborough. It will consider the role and limitations of inquests and public inquiries, and reflect on how legal action, campaigning and public pressure have driven systemic change.

The event is co-hosted by the Pat Finucane Centre (PFC), the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), INQUEST, and the International Expert Panel convened by the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights.

Please register in advance. Additional panel members will be announced closer to the event.

Confirmed speakers:

Gareth Peirce
Gareth Peirce is a renowned British solicitor and human rights advocate, celebrated for her unwavering commitment to justice in some of the UK's most significant miscarriage of justice cases. Her legal career includes representing clients such as the Guildford Four, the Birmingham Six, Moazzam Begg, and the family of Jean Charles de Menezes. Peirce’s work has shaped legal and public understanding of state abuses, from torture and wrongful imprisonment to unlawful killings.

Rajiv Menon KC
Rajiv is Joint Head of Garden Court Chambers. He is a barrister with over 30 years’ experience in criminal defence and public law, specialising in cases involving human rights and state accountability. He has acted in some of the most significant public inquiries and inquests in recent history, including the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, the Hillsborough Inquests, and the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. He currently represents individuals and organisations in the Undercover Policing Inquiry.

Deborah Coles
Executive Director of INQUEST, Deborah leads the organisation’s strategic legal, policy and parliamentary work on state-related deaths in England and Wales. She has worked with bereaved families for over three decades to prevent deaths and ill-treatment in detention after state violence and racism. Her expertise on contentious deaths and their investigation and the pursuit of truth, justice and accountability and systemic change has informed independent reviews and inquiries at a UK and international level.

Brian Dooley
Senior Advisor at Human Rights First and Honorary Professor at Queen’s University Belfast. He is also a Visiting Scholar at University College London. A member of the International Expert Panel on State Impunity and the Northern Ireland Conflict, his work focuses on human rights in conflict and post-conflict contexts.

Dr Aoife Duffy
Senior Lecturer at the University of Essex Human Rights Centre and member of the International Expert Panel on State Impunity and the Northern Ireland Conflict. Her work focuses on transitional justice, detention, and state violence, with a particular interest in legacy issues arising from the Northern Ireland conflict.

Niall Murphy
Partner at KRW Law in Belfast, specialising in human rights, legacy litigation and public law. He represents the family of murdered GAA official Sean Brown in their long-running legal battle for a public inquiry, a case that raises profound questions about state accountability and the obstruction of truth recovery in Northern Ireland. He has acted in many high-profile legacy cases and is a prominent advocate for justice and accountability in post-conflict contexts.