“In the event of the failure of mediation, recourse to independent adjudications and procedures”

With Sinn Féin and the DUP now trading statements and counter-statements on the future of parades ahead of any “agreed outcomes” of that working group there are couple of pieces of information worth bringing ‘above the fold’. From a BBC report we learn

Meanwhile, it has emerged that two advisers have been appointed to the group. They are Presbyterian minister Mervyn Gibson, a prominent Orangeman, and Sean ‘Spike’ Murray a prominent republican. Both men sat on the Ashdown Review team on parades, whose final report has yet to be published.

And, according to a Guardian report

Leading Sinn Féin members encountered hostility to any concessions to unionists on Orange and loyalist parades at a meeting of Catholic residents groups in County Derry last week. The depth of anger has forced Sinn Féin to harden its position on contentious parades.

And a reminder of what the working group “has been tasked to take forward”

4. The working group has been tasked to take forward work in the following areas, building on the interim report of the Strategic
Review of Parading. This will inform the public consultation, as part of the schedule, as set out in the timetable below:
· Procedures relating to the receipt and notification of parades and assemblies; objections relating to them; necessary actions arising from the lodging of objections; and the facilitation of dialogue and mediation;
· In the event of the failure of mediation, recourse to independent adjudications and procedures;
· Adjudication arrangements comprising an appropriate mix of lay and legal expertise with sufficient resources to operate effectively and efficiently;
· A code of conduct which is legally enforceable;
· The right of citizens to freedom from all forms of harassment.

Pete Baker