Stormont: Only Jim Allister objects as bill of rights committee set up

MLAs have agreed to set up a new committee to examine a potential bill of rights for Northern Ireland – but it will not report for more than two years.
An Assembly vote yesterday on the creation of a committee to discuss a bill of rights was passed on an oral voteAn Assembly vote yesterday on the creation of a committee to discuss a bill of rights was passed on an oral vote
An Assembly vote yesterday on the creation of a committee to discuss a bill of rights was passed on an oral vote

The Ad Hoc Committee to consider the creation of a Bill of Rights will have to report by February 28, 2022.

The question of whether Northern Ireland should have a bill of rights has been unresolved for decades, having been raised at various points during constitutional negotiations during the Troubles.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The issue was included in the 1998 Belfast Agreement, but the commitment was vague and has led to subsequent dispute as to what was agreed.

The agreement merely binds the parties to a process where the Human Rights Commission would “consult and to advise on the scope for defining, in Westminster legislation, rights supplementary to those in the European Convention on Human Rights, to reflect the particular circumstances of Northern Ireland”.

After several delays, that process culminated in a process which ended in disagreement in 2008 when unionists objected to sweeping proposals to include socio-economic rights which they argued were not specific to Northern Ireland’s circumstances.

The DUP boycotted the launch of that advice on a bill of rights, saying at the time that it gave “more rights to trees than unborn children”.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

A representative of the Roman Catholic Church also stayed away from the launch event after his suggestion – that a child should have rights from conception – was not adopted.

The advice was then rejected by the government and the issue largely lay dormant for years. However, after the collapse of Stormont Sinn Fein raised the issue again and it featured in last month’s deal to restore Stormont.

There was no debate yesterday in the Assembly on the creation of the new committee which will contain two MLAs each from the DUP and Sinn Fein, and one MLA from the SDLP, the UUP and the Alliance Party.

The TUV leader Jim Allister disputed the way in which the committee was established, criticising the failure to allow debate and arguing that if the names of those nominated to the committee were not approved by the Assembly then it was possible that a human rights committee could contain “human rights abusers” who have terrorist convictions.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

When a vote on the establishment of the committee was called, Mr Allister shouted “no”, but his was the only objection and Speaker Alex Maskey ruled that the vote had been carried on an oral vote without the need for a recorded vote.

In a statement, Sinn Fein MLA John O’Dowd welcomed the establishment of the committee, describing a bill of rights as “clearly long overdue”. He said there was a need for a “short, focused programme of work which then brings forward proposals for a bill of rights which will protect all our citizens”.