Taking Northern Ireland out of the EU will destroy the Good Friday agreement, Gerry Adams has said.

He said fundamental human rights enshrined in the 1998 deal to end violence could be undermined, though the top legal adviser to Stormont ministers has said not a word of the agreement will be affected.

Adams, the Sinn Féin president, said Northern Ireland should enjoy special status within the European Union after Brexit, and said this would not affect the constitutional settlement that secures its status as part of the UK.

“The British government’s intention to take the north out of the EU, despite the wish of the people there to remain, is a hostile action. Not just because of the implications of a hard border on this island but also because of its negative impact on the Good Friday agreement,” he said a conference in Dublin on a united Ireland.

“The British prime minister repeated her intention to bring an end to the jurisdiction of the European court. Along with her commitment to remove Britain from the European convention on human rights, this stand threatens to undermine the fundamental human rights elements of the Good Friday agreement.”

He claimed ending partition between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic had taken on a new importance. “As the dire economic implications of Brexit take shape there is an opportunity to promote a new agreed Ireland,” he said.

“The dangers of a hard Brexit are now more obvious than before. The north needs a special designated status within the EU. The Irish government needs to adopt this as a strategic objective in its negotiations within the EU27 as they negotiate with the British prime minister.”

He said there was no strategic plan from Dublin ministers.

The Irish government has convened an all-Ireland forum on Brexit and agreed with the prime minister that there should be no return to the borders of the past. Its priorities remain economic and trade arrangements, the peace process, border issues and the common travel area.

Adams said: “The British position also fails to take account of the fact that citizens in the north, under the agreement, have a right to Irish citizenship and therefore EU citizenship.”

Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU referendum by a majority of 56% to 44%.

