Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee
15 July 2026
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Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee Actual start House of Lords
16:16 - 17:54
Speaker 1
Good morning and welcome to the public meeting of the Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee, which is today holding our sixth public evidence session of our inquiry on Article 2 of the Protocol and Windsor Framework, the so-called non-diminution of rights provision.
We are joined this morning by Dermot Nesbitt, who was the lead negotiator for the Ulster Unionist Party to the multi-party negotiations regarding human rights and equality, which led to the 1998 Belfast Good Friday Agreement. We are concerned in particular today with the Rights, Safeguards and Equality of Opportunity chapter, the RSEO chapter of the agreement, which is referenced explicitly in Article 2(1) of the Protocol/Windsor Framework. You are very welcome, Mr. Nesbitt, and we very much look forward to your evidence. The first time you speak, perhaps you would briefly introduce yourself. Today's meeting is being broadcast and a verbatim transcript will be taken for subsequent publication.
It will be sent to you to check for accuracy. I refer to the register of members' interests as published on the committee's website.
So I'm going to start the session now by asking the first question. What was the starting point for the negotiations on equality and human rights provisions during the multi-party talks, and how did this relate to the six rights listed in the Downing Street Declaration of 1993?
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