Petition of Concern cases ‘may need approval by Human Rights Commission’ in new Stormont
A key proposal in the Stormont talks is to reform the Petition of Concern (PoC) so that its use would have to be approved on each occasion by the Human Rights Commission, it has been claimed.
A source also said that a proposal would see the PoC only used if it could secure 30 signatures, one of which must be from a second party.
It would then have to be approved by the Human Rights Commission. The source claimed that this was “a clever way” to do away with the controversial measure. DUP MLA Edwin Poots tweeted that “other significant issues are still outstanding” while the source also said no deal has been done on Irish language.
The SDLP’s deputy leader Nichola Mallon told the BBC the proposed PoC reform would introduce an “independent set of standards that it can measured against and used against, so it can no longer be abused as a dead hand veto for those who are in the most powerful positions”.
This had been agreed by the SDLP, Alliance Party and UUP and Sinn Fein are sympathetic, she said.
Another source rejected the suggestion that the Human Rights Commission would have to approve each use of the measure.
“However its use would have to be compatible with human rights or equality standards,” he said.
Instead it is proposed that a panel of non-elected people would have to approve each use of the PoC.
He also agreed that such a system could potentially clash with DUP values on LGBT or abortion related issues.
Sustainability of the assembly is also a key issue on the talks agenda, he said, so that one party can no longer pull down Stormont.
“It is the DUP that has done most of the driving on this but everyone is pretty keen too,” he added.