Human Rights Violations Due to Armed Conflict in Ireland

The research proposal discusses the impact of armed conflict on human rights violations in Ireland. It evaluates the methods in which human rights law protects the war victims and the efficacy of the legal framework in implementing such legal guarantees. The proposal also discusses the national and international interventions in attempting to deter armed conflicts that result in human rights violations in Ireland.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Background......................................................................................................................................4
Thesis Statement..............................................................................................................................5
Aims and Objectives........................................................................................................................5
Research Questions..........................................................................................................................6
Significance of the study.................................................................................................................6
Scope of the Study...........................................................................................................................6
Literature Review............................................................................................................................7
Research Methodology....................................................................................................................8
Data collection method................................................................................................................8
Phase one [1-6 months]...............................................................................................................8
Phase 2 [6-12 months].................................................................................................................9
Analysis.........................................................................................................................................10
Methods to tackle the problem......................................................................................................10
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................11

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Abstract
The political violence prevalent in the Northern Ireland since 1921 has had a serious impact on
the nation and its nationals in the form of human rights violations. The impact of conflict, which
took place in the form of armed conflict, verbal threats and abuses and contravention of right to
life has been most significant. The establishment of the Good Friday Agreement 1998 includes
constitutional framework and minimal human rights that has been incorporated to safeguard the
human rights in Ireland. Nevertheless, the inefficacy of the legal framework has resulted in
human rights violations which requires to be strengthened in order to implement the human
rights and other relevant provisions into the country.

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Introduction
In the context of international law, states have an obligation to safeguard its nationals
against any atrocities based on the international human right standards that are conferred upon
the state to comply with the “Responsibility to Protect” obligation. The human rights advocacy
has not only affirmed that states must observe human rights standards but have also assured that
in the event of failure on part of state governments, the international community shall also
collectively undertake actions to ensure compliance with such obligations. It is a well-known fact
that armed conflict is an area, which influences human rights violations significantly.
Subsequently, over the past decades, the experts have been concentrating on the development of
instruments that aims at eliminating the human sufferings during conflict and war (Solis 2016).
This research proposal shall also discuss about the national as well as international
interventions in attempting to deter armed conflicts that is resulting in human rights violation.
Although several nations experience human rights violation in some form or the other, this
proposal shall focus on the human rights violations due to armed conflicts in Ireland (Vincent
2017). This is because human rights, human rights abuses have been a fundamental part of the
Northern Ireland agenda as the communities are continued to be deprived of human rights for
decades striving to attain equality on all sides.
Background
Over the past few decades, rebels, diplomats, journalists and demonstrators refer to
human rights law in the event of armed conflicts. The international legal framework for human
rights includes UN Security Council Resolutions, General Assembly, the Commission on

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Human Rights and Human Rights Council. More recently, these Human Rights framework
have considered that in armed conflicts, parties to such conflicts usually have obligations with
respect to the rights of persons that are affected by the conflict and such obligations have a legal
binding on such state parties (Kaczorowska 2015).
Armed conflict has scarred million lives as it resulted in war crimes, genocide and crimes
against humanity. International human rights law has been developed with an objective to
preserve humanity and dignity of all (Scherrer 2017).
Thesis Statement
The thesis statement of this research paper relates to the violation of human rights laws
due to armed conflict in Ireland. The violence in Northern Ireland has been influenced by
conflict over the political status of the region (Buchanan 2016). The conflict was a third year
bout of political violence and low intensity armed conflict, which formed part of the Northern
Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain. The conflict involved multiple armed and
political actors (Ferguson, Burgess and Hollywood 2015).
Aims and Objectives
The aims and objectives of this research proposal are as follows:
 To understand how armed conflict violate human rights;
 To evaluate the methods in which human rights law protect the war victims;
 To understand the national and international interventions in case of armed conflict in
Ireland

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Research Questions
The research question for this assignment is as follows:
 How armed conflict infringes human rights?
 What are the ways human rights law safeguard the war victims?
 How national and international interventions have assisted Ireland while armed conflict
violates human rights?
Significance of the study
The research talks about the victims of the political conflict in Northern Ireland prior to
1998, which led to an environment wherein civil oppression, state human right abuses and
paramilitary violence were on the rise and tolerated (Forsythe 2017). However, a legal
intervention has been made in the form of Good Friday Agreement that guaranteed minimal
human right protections and constitutional frameworks in Northern Netherland. The research will
talk about the armed conflicts and the impact of such human rights violations on the country. It
shall also discuss about the efficacy of the legal framework in implementing such legal
guarantees (O'Leary and McGarry 2016).
Scope of the Study
Armed conflicts are circumstances where human rights are subjected to several
contraventions because of which experts have focused on the development of instruments that
purports to eliminate human sufferings during the conflict and war (Hull 2015). Recently,
humanitarian intervention, maintenance of protection and peace of collective security along with
the protection of cultural property have been given priority with respect to human rights law.

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Literature Review
Political violence: Overview
The political violence in Northern Ireland was a complex conflict that involved multiple
political and armed actors. It also included an armed insurgency against the state comprising the
nationalist or Catholic population along with other republican parties purporting to establish a
united independent Ireland.
Good Friday Agreement 1998
This agreement was established which included formal guarantees and constitutional
framework that would provide human rights protection in Ireland. However, while the agreement
concentrates on human rights, it has not proved to be effective enough to deliver true sovereignty
and extend human rights protections to the people.
Armed Conflict causing human right violation
Armed conflict results in deaths and allow offenders unpunished under the guise of
national security interest. In Northern Ireland’s case, inefficacy of legislations would permit
deaths at the hand of the state to remain uninvestigated (Oberleitner 2015). The government
denied accountability for the loss of the lives resulting in injustice. Consequently, such injustice
might take an enormous psychological toll on the families of the aggrieved who have been
subjected to human right abuses (Leavitt and Fox 2014). The inefficacy in the legal framework
has attributed to the prevailing of issues and adverse consequences in the form of human right
violations.

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Research Methodology
Data collection method
The data collection method that shall be used in this research proposal is secondary data
collection method where the researcher shall use secondary resources to retrieve information for
this research. Secondary sources include books, articles, peer-reviewed journals, magazines,
legal sites, legislations, legal documents, case laws etc.
Phase one [1-6 months]
During this phase, the researcher will carry out research on the given topic of this
research paper. The research shall include information related to the concept of armed conflict
and the manner in which armed conflicts violates human rights. Since the research focuses on
Ireland, the research will emphasize on armed conflicts carried out in Ireland and the human
right violation that resulted from such armed conflicts.
Step 1
The main activities in this step shall involve reviewing of literature that is related to
armed conflict and its impact of human rights violation to recognize the gaps in the information
that has been retrieved from the articles, journals, books and understand what the other experts,
authors, or researchers have stated about the given topic. Moreover, this phase would help me to
ensure that my aims and objectives for the research focus on the subject matter of the research.
During this phase, research questions must be analyzed in more detail to determine their
effectiveness in attaining the goals of the study. Besides, the budget for the proposal shall also be
prepared while determining the coverage scope.

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Step 2
Thereafter, I will decide the relevant articles, books, media articles, online journals,
online books or articles, case laws, legislations that would assist in completing the research
paper. I will obtain necessary permission from the graduate school for my relevant proposal. For
obtaining approval for proposal, I will present the proposal to school committees.
Step 3
The other activities will be to determine the overall effectiveness of the research study
using the information gathered from the literature review and outline the expected outcome of
the study.
Phase 2 [6-12 months]
During this phase, I will focus on several real-life case scenarios/studies/laws related to
armed conflicts and how it has attributed to the violation of human rights. Here, several
legislations that are relevant to the topic shall be analyzed and their effectiveness shall be
determined to assist the researcher in answering the research questions.
The case studies/case laws will assist in explaining the adverse consequences that result
from armed conflicts and the extent to which it affects the security of the nation and safety of the
nationals. The legislations shall provide an outline of the legal framework that is present to
prevent armed conflict that is prevalent in Ireland since decades and the interventions that have
been made to resolve the issue.

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Analysis
The collected data shall be analyzed based on the research questions along with the
recommendations and discussions that shall be provided in the research paper. This analysis
purports to recognize the data collected and apply it to answer the research questions while
considering the aims and objectives of the research.
Methods to tackle the problem
The researcher will use thematic analysis method to deal with the aims and objectives of
the research paper. The researcher shall use thematic analysis to evaluate the information that is
retrieved using secondary sources. This kind of analysis shall include various themes relevant to
the research topic which shall be explained in details in the research paper.

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Bibliography
Buchanan, S., 2016. Transforming conflict through social and economic development: practice
and policy lessons from Northern Ireland and the Border Counties. Oxford University Press.
Cummings, E.M., Merrilees, C.E., Taylor, L.K. and Mondi, C.F., 2017. Developmental and
social–ecological perspectives on children, political violence, and armed conflict. Development
and psychopathology, 29(1), pp.1-10.
Ferguson, N., Burgess, M. and Hollywood, I., 2015. Leaving violence behind: Disengaging from
politically motivated violence in Northern Ireland. Political Psychology, 36(2), pp.199-214.
Forsythe, D.P., 2017. Human rights in international relations. Cambridge University Press.
Hull, R.H., 2015. The Irish Triangle: Conflict in Northern Ireland. Princeton University Press.
Kaczorowska, A., 2015. Public international law. Routledge.
Leavitt, L.A. and Fox, N.A. eds., 2014. The psychological effects of war and violence on
children. Psychology Press.
Oberleitner, G., 2015. Human Rights in Armed Conflict. Cambridge University Press.
O'Leary, B. and McGarry, J., 2016. The politics of antagonism: understanding Northern Ireland.
Bloomsbury Publishing.
Scherrer, C.P., 2017. Ethnicity, nationalism and violence: Conflict management, human rights,
and multilateral regimes. Routledge.

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Solis, G.D., 2016. The law of armed conflict: international humanitarian law in war. Cambridge
University Press.
Vincent, J., 2017. Ethnicity and the state in Northern Ireland. In Ethnicity and the state (pp. 123-
146). Routledge.