Human Rights – Page 4 – Slugger O'Toole

We have it easy today compared to what happened after 5th October 1968

Brian Walker on October 5, 2018, 6:58 pm

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October 5 1968 was indeed a sort of Bastille Day for Northern Ireland when a single event triggered a “ bliss it was to be alive” moment. Like the French Revolution it was followed by a long and darkening era of violence when “ things would never be the same again”. Of course it had deep roots in the past. It emulated a wave of street actions in the US, Paris and Prague, all with different outcomes. Whole volumes of …

Bradley’s attempt to choke off debate on a statute of limitations will fail

Brian Walker on October 2, 2018, 11:17 am

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In anticipation of the end of the consultation period on Friday for the proposals on dealing with the Troubles’ legacy, the secretary of state Karen Bradley writes in Eamonn Mallie’s website.. As the consultation is still live, I will not, at this stage, comment on specific suggestions. She then goes on to do precisely that, on the issue overhanging the whole exercise that has significant support at Westminster and in sections of NI opinion. The military lobby is campaigning strongly …

Big business’s demand for same sex marriage must set a precedent for more challenges to our embarrassingly out of touch politicians

Brian Walker on September 11, 2018, 10:53 pm

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Hooray! At last! Civil society, for so long fearful of saying a single word that would offend a politician, has plucked up enough courage to speak out on a burning issue that’s also a glaring anomaly. In a move that takes advantage of the political vacuum and shows just how fed up they are with it, normally cautious big business is calling for equal marriage to be extended to Northern Ireland. They’re arguing on the grounds of creating better jobs …

If the MoD stalls over the Ballymurphy inquest, you can forget drawing a line under the Troubles

Brian Walker on September 9, 2018, 1:31 pm

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The Channel 4 film “Massacre at Ballymurphy” will quickly be seized on as ammunition in the battle of narratives for dealing with the past. Those who complain that not only the narrative but justice has become one sided may believe that the documentary has handed a propaganda victory to Sinn Fein: and so whatever the gross hypocrisy involved, it probably has. But this is beside the point. To think of it only in Clausewitzian terms is to view it through the …

Spurred on by the generals, the government now admit they’re considering an amnesty

Brian Walker on September 6, 2018, 1:17 pm

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For the first time the UK government have admitted they’re considering a general amnesty arising out of the Troubles. Although an amnesty is not government policy, the admission came in a Lords debate instigated by the former Chief of General Staff of the Army Lord Dannatt, supported by other former top brass and former secretaries of state. What remains unclear is how this would affect the Legacy package of the Stormont House Agreement, including the proposal for an independent Historical …

From the London broadsheets, rare interest in Irish developing positions is to be welcomed

Brian Walker on September 5, 2018, 10:42 am

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The criticism is well made that British interest in Irish positions is generally self serving and fails to recognise their independent validity. Any slight shift in this is to be welcomed. The London broadsheets have paid Sinn Fein the rare compliment of taking seriously the party’s think-in at Cavan. It’s worth noting that they have yet to broach the notion that a Brexit solution would be so much easier if Northern Ireland were to join the Republic. Quite apart from …

The arrest of two journalists is a symptom of a bankrupt system for dealing with the Troubles legacy, with no solution in sight

Brian Walker on September 4, 2018, 12:11 pm

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The arrest and interrogation of two journalists suspected of stealing documents in connection with the making the film documentary No Stone Unturned on the Loughinisland murders, is a perfect example of how the current handing of the Troubles legacy is deeply unsatisfactory. In the present vacuum, the PSNI, which still retains front-line legacy responsibilities, seems to feel bound to be seen doing something, even in cases where they look self interested, counterproductive and downright foolish. On the face of it …

Women Won’t Wait: Campaigners for Women’s Rights and Equality Speak Out about the Impact of Stormont Stalemate

Soapbox on August 28, 2018, 7:30 am

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The results of a survey released today by the Women’s Resource and Development Agency reveal the impact of having no government at Stormont on women’s community organisations and campaign groups. 80% of those surveyed said they have continued to lobby decision makers in the 19 months since the collapse of the Executive, but the majority felt that it is now much harder to make progress on the issues that affect their organisations and communities. The 48 respondents to the survey …

The Pope calling those involved in abuse and coverup “caca”- excrement – will be remembered. But will it be significant?

Brian Walker on August 26, 2018, 1:10 pm

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In a statement, the representatives from the Survivors of Mother and Baby Homes group said Francis condemned corruption and cover up within the Church as “caca”, an Italian and Spanish word for human excrement. The statement said that after the pope used the word, his translator explained that it meant “literally filth as one sees in a toilet.” A Vatican spokesman had no comment on the details of what was said in the meeting. A Vatican official said he …

Institutional discrimination is dead. Identity politics has become an entertainment

Brian Walker on August 10, 2018, 10:23 am

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Even the most inventive of columnists run out of material in the dog days of August. So Alex Kane treats us to a little rant in the Irish News. The constitutional question remains at the heart of all political debate here; yet that question is louder and more pressing than it has been in my lifetime. This point was always coming, of course. As long as there were nationalist choices for one community and unionist choices for the other the question …

Paisley apology to MPs, DUP and constituents – but none for Sri Lankans

Patrick Corrigan on July 19, 2018, 6:14 pm

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It is difficult, therefore, to avoid the conclusion that the reason why the third visit was registered and the two earlier ones were not, was that Mr Paisley was conscious of the potential embarrassment that would be caused to him were it to become publicly known that he had accepted very expensive hospitality, for himself and his family, from a foreign government accused of serious human rights violations. This key passage from the House of Commons Standards Committee report into …

The bogey of a hard border is starting to vanish before our eyes

Brian Walker on July 8, 2018, 4:19 pm

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Majority reaction to the Chequers summit is cautiously optimistic, most reservations from all but the Brexiteer fanatics being postponed, using the alibi of next Thursday’s publication of the 120 page government White Paper before they fully respond. If you’re naturally positive, you’ll see it as an undoubtedly soft Brexit; if you’re a cynic whether Leaver or Remainer, you may call it a fake Brexit. The outcome can be summed up by saying that on goods and regulations, the UK will …

Defence Secretary Williamson revealed as private backer of an amnesty for soldiers

Brian Walker on July 6, 2018, 12:03 pm

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Despite this Sun ” exclusive,” the ambitious Defence Secretary – the man who as chief whip negotiated the Conservative-DUP parliamentary deal – will have other things on his mind today – like which way will he jump on Theresa May’s Brexit plan? GAVIN Williamson has secretly backed an amnesty for IRA terrorists — as the price for ending the witch-hunt of troops, The Sun can reveal. The Defence Secretary wants Theresa May to grant British troops who served in Northern …

Veil of secrecy over Special Branch informer system lifted a chink as the Finucanes make their bid to the Supreme Court

Brian Walker on June 26, 2018, 2:40 pm

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The Guardian lead on the Walker report ( no relation), neatly coincides with the opening of the Finucane family’s bid to the Supreme Court to order a public inquiry into Pat Finucane’s murder. The “secret” report by a former head of MI5 complied in 1980 – nine years before he was murdered – was “the blueprint for making RUC special branch a ‘force within a force’, according to the human rights legal group the Committee on the Administration for Justice …

Individual conscience may make implementing abortion reform as controversial as deciding on the principle

Brian Walker on June 14, 2018, 12:03 pm

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From the Asher’s case to abortion, individual conscience and the prerogatives of devolution greatly complicate reform beyond a straightforward appeal to human rights. Secretary of state Karen Bradley has been attacked for hypocrisy over personally supporting abortion reform while resting on her belief that the Northern Ireland public overwhelmingly support action by a Stormont that is non-sitting and in which there probably isn’t a majority in favour of reform anyway. She knows resting on constitutional propriety gets her off even …

Abortion Alliances Transcending Orange and Green

Elizabeth Nelson on June 8, 2018, 9:28 am

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One of the first things I became involved in through the Belfast Feminist Network was a short play about abortion. It attempted to tell the stories of women’s experiences accessing abortions from Northern Ireland. At the time, around 2011, it was novel. We weren’t even telling real stories, per se, but writing them based on conversations with real women. We performed it a couple of times, and then the artistic conversations moved on to telling real women’s actual stories – …

Make no mistake about it, this was an important judgement for human rights in Northern Ireland

Sarah Creighton on June 8, 2018, 9:20 am

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On the 7th June 2018 the Supreme Court finally delivered its judgement on Northern Ireland’s abortion laws. Activists and lawyers have been waiting for the ruling with baited breath. The decision comes a few weeks after the referendum in the Republic of Ireland to repeal the Eighth Amendment. It’s fair to say the judgement wasn’t quite what people expected. The case was, as Lady Hale said, ‘an unusually difficult case to resolve.’ In a sprawling 144 page judgement four of …

Arlene Foster challenges Sinn Fein to debate abortion reform in the Assembly, claiming SF support for DUP stance

Brian Walker on June 3, 2018, 1:51 pm

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Arlene Foster says some Sinn Fein supporters have told her they will vote DUP because of her party’s position on abortion. In her first interview since Ireland’s referendum on the issue, she told Sky News a lot of people were feeling “disenfranchised” by the result. “I have had emails from Nationalists and Republicans in Northern Ireland not quite believing what is going on and saying they will be voting for the DUP because they believe we are the only party …

Will Northern Ireland now look to the Republic for abortion rights – or Trump’s America?

Brian Walker on May 26, 2018, 8:49 am

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On the face of it, you’d think it’s a non- question. It just couldn’t happen in Northern Ireland where the direction of travel is surely the other way. But in the States, Roe v Wade, the essential abortion law of the whole country, is under unprecedented attack from the conservative evangelical right, coalescing round the Trump coalition. Given the ideological split on the current Supreme Court, with five conservative justices to four liberal ones, President Donald Trump is one Supreme Court …

Where Barra Magrory leads on dealing with the past, others will follow

Brian Walker on May 18, 2018, 8:06 pm

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No longer inhibited by his former office, the ex- DPP Barra Magrory isn’t alone in believing that an independent Historical Investigations Unit will produce few results for victims, survivors and families and could be more divisive than reconciling. The best to be hoped for is that once a renewed effort to bring cases to trial is made over five years, politicians and the public will face up to the issue of a calling halt to prosecutions, combined with a release …