A Bill of Rights for Northern
Ireland
1. The Belfast Agreement signed on 10 April (Good
Friday) 1998 provided for the creation of a Northern Ireland Human
Rights Commission, invited to
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, drawing as appropriate on international
instruments and experience. These additional rights to reflect
the principles of mutual respect for the identity and ethos of
both communities and parity of esteem, and - taken together with
the ECHR - to constitute a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.[1]
Among the issues specified for consideration by the
Commission were:
- the formulation of a general
obligation on government and public bodies fully to respect,
on the basis of equality of treatment, the identity and ethos
of both communities in Northern Ireland; and
- a clear formulation of the rights not to be discriminated
against and to equality of opportunity in both the public and
private sectors.[2]
2. The 2003 joint declaration by the Governments
of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland stated that
once consultation on a Bill of Rights had concluded:
The British Government is committed to bringing forward
legislation at Westminster where required to give effect to rights
supplementary to the ECHR to reflect the particular circumstances
of Northern Ireland.[3]
3. A Bill of Rights Forum was created after the St
Andrew's Agreement of 2006 and its recommendations, made in March
2008, were considered by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.
The Commission itself produced its detailed Advice to the Secretary
of State for Northern Ireland in December 2008. It made 78 recommendations
relating to substantive rights additional to rights contained
in the European Convention on Human Rights (which was itself incorporated
into UK domestic law in 1998, soon after the Belfast Agreement
was reached). It also included recommendations on how a Bill of
Rights could be implemented and enforced.
4. Representative polling across Northern Ireland
has consistently shown strong support, in both main communities,
for the principle of introducing a Bill of Rights specific to
Northern Ireland. Substantial differences remain, however, on
what the form and content of such a Bill should be.
5. Those differences were exemplified in the Northern
Ireland Human Rights Commission itself. Two of the 10 Commissioners
dissociated themselves from the Advice to the Secretary of State
by recording formal dissent to the proposal and issuing notes
outlining why they disagreed with substantial parts of that Advice.
6. The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission expected
that the Northern Ireland Office would launch its own 12-week
consultation on its Advice in the spring of 2009. The Commission
also hoped that a Bill might be presented at Westminster before
the general election of 2010.
7. The NIO did not, however, respond to the Advice
until 30 November 2009. The NIO launched its own consultation
on the Commission's proposals, initially seeking responses by
1 March 2010. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Rt
Hon. Shaun Woodward MP, announced on 24 February that that deadline
would extended for a further four weeks, to the end of March.
As the House of Commons must be dissolved by May 2010 at the latest,
there is no prospect of a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland
being presented or enacted in the present Parliament.
8. When we launched this inquiry early in 2009, it
was our intention to comment on the proposals made by the Northern
Ireland Human Rights Commission and on the Government's response
to them in the expectation that legislation might be forthcoming
within the lifetime of the present Parliament. As no such legislation
will now emerge, we believe it would be improper of us to bind
a future Northern Ireland Affairs Committee to a particular position.
Therefore, we have chosen in this Report to publish the evidence
that we have received from organisations and individuals in Northern
Ireland and to suggest to our successor Committee that it may
wish to consider future proposals on a Bill of Rights for Northern
Ireland as part of its work programme.
9. None the less, in order that a new Parliament
may be as fully informed as possible, we join the Secretary
of State for Northern Ireland in urging all those who have the
best interests of Northern Ireland at heart to study what is proposed
for a future Bill of Rights and to give the Northern Ireland Office
their views, whether in favour of or in opposition to a Northern
Ireland Bill of Rights.
1 Belfast Agreement 1998, Rights, Safeguards and
Equality of Opportunity, para 4 Back
2
Ibid Back
3 Joint
Declaration by the British and Irish Governments, April 2003,
para 2. Back
| 
