Photosales
niJobfinder
niCarfinder
Home Delivery
Propertynews
Respect for rights is the basis of a shared future
A new poll demonstrates overwhelming support for a strong Bill of Rights, argues Kevin Hanratty
Friday, 12 March 2010
More than 80% of the public has, in this poll, endorsed a strong Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland containing protections for issues like health, education and standards of living. They have clearly indicated they want to have the strongest human rights protections possible.
The inclusion of a Bill of Rights to reflect our 'particular circumstances' in the Good Friday Agreement was aimed at ensuring we do not repeat the mistakes of our past and guarantee rights, that were once violated, are protected.
Social and economic issues were inextricably linked to the causes of our conflict. It stands to reason they should also form part of the solution. After 30 years of conflict, thousands of lives lost, sectarianism, social exclusion, poverty, homes and houses shattered, trauma ingrained, disability, sickness, economic inactivity and lack of investment, it is difficult to understand why the Government would think the only rights that form our 'particular circumstances' are the right to vote/be elected and the right to identify ourselves as British, Irish or both.
Yet these are the only firm proposals for rights protection offered by the Government in their current consultation document on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.
We are told health, housing and standards of living do not reflect our 'particular circumstances'. No meaningful explanation is presented as to why not, except that it would be unfair for us to have such rights and the rest of the UK not to have them.
This ignores the fact that the conflict, and its impact, sets Northern Ireland apart from the rest of the UK. The polls make clear people here support the protection of social and economic rights in a Bill of Rights and the Government must respond. Various arguments are proffered as to why they should not be included - the most common being that they would transfer the power to make decisions on public policy away from government to unelected judges. This is not the case. Primary responsibility for enforcement of these rights lies properly with elected representatives.
When laws are introduced to Parliament, they would be assessed as to whether they are compatible with the Bill of Rights. The role for a Bill of Rights would therefore be one for our elected representatives.
In addition, social and economic rights are progressively implemented, it is only in scenarios in which the Government is clearly not taking steps to realise a specific right, or are taking regressive steps, that they may be held to account, just as they would be in any other area of law or policy-making.
International experience shows this does not shift the balance of power from government to judiciary, as judges will not have the power to decide public policy, or how government spends its resources.
Rather it reinforces the system of checks and balances and dialogue between courts and Parliament. Let us take today's poll as a confirmation of what we already know: cross-community support for a strong and inclusive Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland exists.
The Government needs to hear this and respond with a set of proposals that reflect the particular circumstances of Northern Ireland as a society emerging from conflict and trying to build a peaceful and shared future.
Kevin Hanratty manages campaigns for the Human Rights Consortium
- Text Size
Just another money making opportunity for fat cat and fat wallet lawyers. If our current domestic legislation is not fit to protect the weak and the vulnerable then it should be reviewed and made so. We do not need another strata of law. If any such Bill is needed it is a Bill of Responsibilities to balance out all these "rights" that seem to abound already, and so exploited by the lawyer and the thug.
Posted by lumina | 15.03.10, 09:22 GMT
Kevin Hanratty tires to portray the 30 year low intensity civil conflict as something that it was not.
It was a struggle for land , it was a nationalist struggle much like what happened in the Balkans.
It was a struggle between Britishness and Irishness.
I agree with Guppy who says that it was an ethic conflict.
Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein always spoke about a united Ireland , about a British withdrawal , it spoke about British colonialism.
I never nheard the IRA/Sin Fein speak about fighting poverty , discrimination or housing or jobs.
Posted by Steve | 13.03.10, 02:27 GMT
Guppy, what the hell are you on about?!!
Be as British as you like, mate, we don't care.
Posted by Mr. P | 12.03.10, 21:17 GMT
Guppy: You must have missed the civil rights marches, unfair labor practices, and outright state sponsored violence.
While we were forcing the Protestants to become Irish with one hand, we we using the other to fight off a disgraced RUC, British Army, and so called defence forces.
What an idiot.
Posted by Ex-Pat | 12.03.10, 20:57 GMT
People seem to me to be getting into a lather about nothing here.
Any Human Rights Act in NI will be a complete waste of time and money
It will be subordinate to UK legislation which in turn is subordinate to EU legislation.
All it will do is create another fee earning opportunity for lawyers
Posted by Alan | 12.03.10, 16:55 GMT
Hmmm...Yet another 'poll' that just happens to reveal astonishing levels of support for a particular project that most people neither know about nor care about.
In my view this Bill of Rights (not to mention the 'poll' in support of it) is a shocking wate of time, money and resources.
Posted by Karyn | 12.03.10, 16:50 GMT
Guppy, did your teacher learn you that history while you swam round and round in your fish bowl?
Posted by Ulysses32 | 12.03.10, 16:02 GMT
We live in a place with pretty strong support for our human rights. Do we really need another play area for lawyers? I thnk not.
There have been human rights abuses in the past in NI but I doubt many of them were carried out legally under current laws.
Posted by bigchiefally | 12.03.10, 15:44 GMT
You say "Social and economic issues were inextricably linked to the causes of our conflict."
This is nonsense. The conflict is an ethnic one with nationalism insisting the Protestants have no right to be anything but Irish.
And the IRA could not take no for an answer and kept a war going for 30 years which destroyed the economy and large elements of working class society.
No bill of rights can address that legacy.
Posted by Guppy | 12.03.10, 14:59 GMT
Question for Mr. Hanratty ? Who PAID for this poll ? Was it US based Atlantic Philanthropies which has flooded the small NI political space with hundreds of thousands of pounds going to HRC ? Chuck Feeney's A P has a political agenda which is broadly anti-state and which supports organizations like the Committee for the Administration of Justice whose former head is the senior grant manager for A P! How fair were the questions asked by this poll ? Were they questions which sought a biased answer in favour of HRC's agenda ? Over to you Mr. Hanratty. Where did the money come from for this poll and your own campaign ? Some transparency please.
Posted by BoldRobertEmmet | 12.03.10, 14:33 GMT