House of Commons - Northern Ireland Affairs

Select Committee on Northern Ireland Affairs Ninth Report

6 Response by community organisations, employers, trade unions, and Churches

Response by support and community organisations

109. We were heartened to note that many support and community organisations were actively encouraging members of their communities to report hate crime attacks, and in some cases had set up their own systems to enable people to report hate crimes. Ms Mairéad McCafferty, Lesbian Line, told us that her organisation had recently established a system of third party recording of incidents. Mr Dónal McKinney explained that the Falls Community Council had been encouraging third party reporting with Travellers, while Mr Patrick Yu of NICEM, Mr Jim Auld of Community Restorative Justice, and Ms Roisin McGlone of Interaction Belfast, each told us that their organisations gathered data on hate crime.[171]

110. Many of the respondents welcomed the information from Mr Tony Clarke MP, a member of this Committee, about the system for self-reporting of hate crimes established in Northamptonshire and believed this could serve as a useful example.[172]

111. Representatives of the Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Jewish, Muslim and Traveller communities and from Cara Friend, CoSO, Lesbian Line, and the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association, told us that they were involved in a wide range of activities related to countering hate crimes. This included raising awareness of the issues, supporting victims of hate crimes, training police officers, work in the education system and responding to consultations, as well as advising and liaising with statutory bodies.[173] The groups recognised that these were all important and necessary activities.

112. Groups from both sectors noted the limited range of resources that they had to draw upon. Mr P.A. MagLochlainn, President of the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association, told us that most LGBT groups received no funding, while the funding provided from public funds largely comes through the Department of Health and is not designed to respond to hate crimes.[174] Mr Iweida, Belfast Islamic Centre, told us that until three years ago, the Muslim community had not received funding from the Government, and that its present funding had been renewed for only one year.[175] The view of Frances McCandless was that resources were being spent in a way that underpinned separation and embedded intolerance.[176]

113. The Department provided us with information on the funding that it had allocated to minority ethnic and LGBT organisations.[177] This indicated that no funding had been awarded to groups specifically to respond to hate crime (although dealing with hate crime might be funded as part of other projects). However, OFMDFM provided £200 and the NIO £600 towards the first anti-homophobia week organised by the CoSO in December 2004.

114. If the Government's determination to root out hate crime is to succeed, then action by the minority support organisations is essential. We heard welcome evidence that some are willing to encourage members to report attacks and other incidents, and we hope that this approach will develop. That support will be inadequate unless proper funding is made available. We therefore welcome the Government's decision to make additional funding available to minority support organisations. We hope this will allow organisations to develop significant programmes of work over a sustained period of time, and to respond more effectively to the problem of hate crime.

Employers and trade unions

115. We were pleased to hear from representatives of trade unions, and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) about work to reduce sectarian harassment and intimidation in the workplace. Mr Tom Gillen of ICTU told us that "the workplace is a much safer environment to work in and it is much more accommodating place where people from different traditions can work together."[178] Both the unions and the CBI cited the importance of legislation in underpinning such changes, while the proactive role of both the trade unions and employers was also acknowledged as an important factor. Mr Nigel Smyth of the CBI considered that "most companies out there, particularly the medium and large, would have a zero tolerance policy towards intimidation and harassment".[179] Dr Duncan Morrow of the Community Relations Council commented upon the success of reducing segregation and sectarianism in the workplace, but felt that a large part of this success was that the workplace was a "protected place", where behaviour could be more readily controlled, and thus this success would not necessarily be replicable elsewhere.[180]

116. Ms Patricia McKeown of Unison raised a note of caution, however, and stressed that there should be no complacency about hate crime in the workplace. She told us that there had been an increase in sectarian threats in recent years, particularly towards workers in the health service, and a growing number of racist and homophobic incidents and harassment of the disabled.[181] Her view was that the trade unions had been active in developing education programmes to challenge sectarianism, but that they had "dragged their heels a bit" in developing an effective response towards racism, homophobia and disability issues.[182] This was something that "the trade union movement, the employers and other pressure groups and NGOs" should work on together.[183]

117. Mr Tom Gillen of ICTU, Mr Peter Maguire of Duncrun Cultural Initiative, and Mr Tom Winston of Greater Shankill Alternatives, among others, commented that high levels of residential and social segregation were factors that contributed to the lack of familiarity of, and tolerance towards, people from different backgrounds.[184] Redevelopment and a growing demand for housing from migrant workers, led some people to feel their culture was threatened and this in turn fed racism, support for neo-Nazi groups, and more intolerance and violence.[185] Local leaders should do more to challenge such attitudes and actions, and political leaders, in particular, were criticised for being slow to condemn racism and homophobia.[186]

118. We welcome the work undertaken by the trade union movement and employers to reduce sectarianism in the work place. However, the evidence we had of increasing numbers of incidents of hatred at work makes it imperative that they continue working jointly with employers and others to develop sound strategies to address racism, homophobia, and discrimination against people with disabilities.

Churches

119. The Most Reverend Lord Eames, Church of Ireland, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, explained the important role played by community leaders and the importance of building trust as a key element of establishing better relations between all communities in Northern Ireland.[187] He told us that this was one of the key activities that the churches had been working on for many years. He also believed that the churches were now reaching out more readily to other faiths, to minority communities and to refugees and asylum seekers, and that this would be an important element of strengthening social relationships and building trust across and between communities.[188]

120. Archbishop Brady, Lord Eames, Reverend Winston Graham and Reverend Dr Ken Newell also stressed the importance of the work they had undertaken at a local level and, in particular, the work that was being done to welcome people moving into an area and offer a network of support if problems start to arise. For example, the Reverend Dr Ken Newell said that the Presbyterian Church tried to "offer to the ethnic minorities centres of hospitality, support and welcome",[189] a sentiment that was echoed by the other church leaders.[190] Reverend Winston Graham thought that the churches needed to place more emphasis on the positive work that was already being done, and that they should become more proactive in developing a good relations programme.[191]

121. The church leaders also highlighted the importance of educational activities, both at a community level, and through the education system, to challenge prejudice and intolerance. Archbishop Sean Brady told us that he was deeply concerned by the Department of Education's decision in April 2004 to cut funding to the Churches' Peace Education Project, a cross church education programme with two full time staff working in primary and secondary schools across Northern Ireland in the areas of mutual understanding, diversity and conflict resolution.[192] He told us that the project had carried out "pioneering work" over 26 years, but that the funding cut meant that it could only have one part-time member of staff and its cross-community and cross-border initiative would end. When we asked the Department about this, we were told that the project's application for funding for 2004-2007 had been unsuccessful, but that it had advised the project of its right to appeal but that it had chosen not to do so.[193]

122. We urge the Churches to continue to build on the work they have initiated and to develop a broadly based good relations programme. The Churches' Peace Education Project is a cross church education programme involving young people across Northern Ireland. We were concerned that Government funding for the project had not been granted for 2004-2007 and, as a consequence, the project had been scaled back. We hope that what appears to be a project with great potential can be funded fully in future, and that other, similar projects can be encouraged.

123. The Churches have a great responsibility for assisting in the development of a culture of tolerance and peace in Northern Ireland. Unless this potential is used to its utmost the drive for social normalisation in Northern Ireland is likely to falter, or even fail. We call on churchmen, and members of Church communities, to ensure that their influence and efforts are placed firmly behind the Government's hate crime policy.

Building bridges with young people

124. We heard heartening evidence about the work of the Tim Parry and Jonathan Ball Trust and the Glencree Centre for Reconciliation in developing a variety of educational programmes, particularly with young people. A number of witnesses, including Dr Paul Connolly, Queens University, Mr Gareth Lee, Queer Space and Ms Eva Mc Kelvey, Northern Ireland Filipino Association, drew attention to the prominent role of young people as perpetrators of much low level hate crime.[194]

125. Ms Clare White, Director of the Tim Parry and Jonathan Ball Trust, pointed out that educational work needed to be undertaken within a "holistic approach", which included a wider range of social and demographic factors and employment prospects and opportunities. Mr Hugh Doyle, Glencree Centre for Reconciliation, acknowledged that some previous work with young people had had limited success because it was impossible to insulate the young people from the impact of a highly segregated society.[195] However, he told the Committee that if more resources were made available, it would allow organisations like Glencree "to work in a more sustained way in supporting local communities and promoting a cross-community culture".[196]

126. We also heard evidence that, while the scale of the task of challenging prejudice and hatred might appear monumental, this work should nevertheless be sustained and developed. Ms Frances McCandless, NICVA, spoke of the need to remove visible manifestations of sectarianism and racism by cleaning up public spaces, while Dr Duncan Morrow, CRC, told us that it was important for communities to be aware of the impact which their visual displays and festivals can have on other communities and emphasised the difference between "cultural celebration and cultural aggression", that is, between events and celebrations that are inclusive rather than threatening.[197] Dr Paul Connolly argued that the current limited scale of integrated education should not be an excuse for inaction, but that there remained considerable scope for challenging prejudice within the segregated schooling system.[198]

127. The evidence we received indicates that the community and voluntary sector, churches, trade unions, employers, peace groups and those working with young people have undertaken positive work and projects to address all forms of hate crimes. We welcome this and urge them to redouble their efforts. The Government's work to establish a robust long-term strategy to tackle the prejudice and fear that lie at the roots of much hate crime requires the support of these bodies and individuals. Such a strategy will fail unless all sections of society provide it with their wholehearted support.

171 Qq 85,382, 402, 511, 540 Back

172 Qq 521, 522 Back

173 Qq 512, 527, 536, 551, 560, 574 Back

174 Qq 538, 539, 540 Back

175 Q560 Back

176 Q283 Back

177 Ev 97 Back

178 Q298 Back

179 Q 298 Back

180 Q 282 Back

181 Qq 302, 305 Back

182 Q 316 Back