Ideas: A bill of rights for Northern Ireland

This idea comes from Kevin of the Human Rights Consortium in Belfast:

What's the big idea?:

A Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland, incorporating social and economic rights. Provision for a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland was included in the Belfast Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Almost twelve years on and that element of the Agreement has yet to be delivered. As a society emerging from conflict the concept of a Bill of Rights to outline the shared rights for everyone in society regardless of their community, creed or nationality would help unite our society around a common set of values. While sectarianism, marching and language are important issues that need addressed the more common day to day issues such as health, housing, education and standards of living have greater capacity to appeal across all communities. Lack of protection for these areas of life also helped create and fuel the conflict in Northern Ireland. Indeed some of the most deprived areas of Northern Ireland produced the greatest number of conflict related deaths during the troubles and those deprived areas still remain in deprivation despite the outbreak of peace.

We therefore advocate for the development of a Bill of Rights which has at its heart a mechanism that will allow for vulnerable and marginalised individuals and groups to be helped. Enforceable social and economic rights would place a duty on our government to address poverty, homelessness and standards of living regardless of who is in power and mainstream these concepts and protections into all aspects of government work.

Why is this change important to you?:

It is clear that the social and economic fabric of Northern Ireland suffered greatly during the conflict. It is therefore essential that the protection of social and economic rights plays a central role in the process of rebuilding Northern Ireland and that issues of poverty, housing, and deprivation are never again allowed to act as breeding grounds for violence. Social and economic rights also encapsulate the day to day range of issues which are of most immediate relevance to the public. Over 90% of people in Northern Ireland already support the inclusion of social and economic rights in the Bill. As we continue to be a society in transition a Bill of Rights would help to build a shared future for everyone in Northern Ireland.

Setting out shared rights to bread and butter issues can help us unite our community around a common set of rights. It will allow us to focus again on what unites us and makes us similar as opposed to what differentiates us.

Kevin Hanratty is the Campaigns Officer for the Human Rights Consortium, a link to their site is available here.