South and East Belfast Sinn Féin -- Building an Ireland of Equals

Maskey calls for Bill of Rights support in Assembly chamber

Published: 2 March, 2010

Speaking in support of a Sinn Féin motion in the Assembly yesterday afternoon South Belfast Sinn Féin MLA Alex Maskey expressed concern that the British Government's proposals for a Bill of Rights ignores the advice from both the Bill of Rights Forum and the Human Rights Commission that social and economic protections must be central to any Bill of Rights.

Alex Maskey reiterated the Sinn Féin call for a rejection of the NIO consultation proposals and for people to support the need to ensure that the rights of all citizens are maximised.

Speaking in the Assembly chamber yesterday Alex Maskey MLA said,

"The Bill of Rights Forum concluded its business in March 2008 and yet we are still waiting for a substantive move forward. Indeed, due to the delay caused by the NIO, we are still involved in a consultation process. I was a member of the Bill of Rights Forum's criminal justice and victims working group, and, although it was a fairly intensive period of discussions, I found those discussions to be very educational. The working group was inclusive, involving representatives from a number of parties and sectors - including the DUP, although it was not an elected member - and it took oral and written submissions from various organisations.

"Although unionist political parties are colder to and less embracing of the concept of rights, I subscribe to the view, as a result of direct experience, that unionist people from wider civic society want the maximum number of rights to be enshrined in law, so that we can all benefit from them. I appeal to the unionist parties. Members have reflected on the past 30 or 40 years or however long they wish to go back. I ask other parties to consider this point: no matter what your perspective is on the past 30, 40 or even 100 years, surely the lessons from and our collective experiences of the conflict and disturbances underwrite the need to maximise everybody's rights. Regardless of whether we are talking about the right to life or to a decent quality of life, surely we want to ensure that people have those rights and that they are enshrined in law.

"I dare say that there are Members in the Chamber who represent victims of the conflict and people who have been bereaved as a result of it, but there are also people in this city, living not too far from here, who must use outside toilets and do not have running water in their home. If Members were to knock on those people's doors and ask them whether they should have rights, I imagine that they would respond with a resounding yes. Indeed, they would probably ask us what the heck we have been doing and why they are not able to avail themselves of those rights already.

"A number of unionist colleagues spoke about taking a minimalist approach to rights. I do not understand what that means, although I suspect it means that people should have as few rights as possible. Most Members are extremely diligent on behalf of their constituents, so surely none of them can convince me or themselves that they can advance their constituents' causes if there are fewer rights. Most of us, as elected representatives, argue for our constituents on the basis that they have a right to a home etc. Therefore, I urge Members to reconsider why they are advocating a minimalist approach to rights.

"Let us remind ourselves that the call for a bill of rights emerged from the St Andrews Agreement, which parties subscribed to and thought was a very good idea.

"There is an opportunity for all of us to say collectively that we need to maximise the rights of all our people, because, whether we like it or not, a lot of what happened for many years was wrapped up in whether or not there was a denial of rights or whether people felt that they had no justice or no recourse to justice.

"I urge Members to consider that the extended deadline for the consultation on the NIO's recommendations gives us an opportunity to reject those recommendations as minimalist. They have been described as being pitifully limited, unacceptable and disrespectful. I would argue that the NIO's contribution to the debate has been disrespectful, because people from right across our society - young and old, from different Churches and backgrounds, secular and otherwise, and from different sectors, ethnic minorities and so on - have made massive contributions to the debate. However, the NIO has belatedly and very begrudgingly sought to reduce the rights that people have already secured over the decades; indeed, many of us suspect that it would seek to reduce those rights further.

"Therefore, I urge people to reconsider the notion of seeking to minimise the rights to which people should be entitled and to push instead for maximum rights. I believe that, if we were to knock on the doors of the people whom we represent, they would call on us to maximise their rights. Representatives from every sector - trade unions, the Churches and so on - have been very quick and vociferous in calling on us to maximise the rights of the citizens whom we all collectively represent. The Assembly can come together in unanimity to support the maximising of people's rights. That would be an important legacy for Members of this particular Assembly.

"In order to secure and copper-fasten a just peace and to build on the promise and hopes of the Good Friday Agreement and the St Andrews Agreement, we should reject the NIO consultation proposals and support the need to ensure that we maximise the rights of all the citizens whom we represent." CRÍOCH

Note to editors:

The full text of the Sinn Féin motion read: That this Assembly expresses concern that the British Government's proposals for a bill of rights ignores the advice from both the Bill of Rights Forum and the Human Rights Commission that social and economic protections must be central to any bill of rights; and further calls for the introduction of a robust, enforceable bill of rights that will provide rights-based protection for all our people.