Victims Commission

A victims view on the appointment of the new Commissioner for Victims and Survivors…

Soapbox on July 24, 2015, 3:19 pm

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I would like to thank the oFM/dFM for finally agreeing on a new Commissioner for Victims and Survivors. It has been over a year since Kathryn Stone stood down from this position: a position which is an integral cog in the structures set up to deal with the needs of those of us most affected by the years of political conflict. The Victims Commission was hamstrung by the absence of a figurehead, as was the Victims Forum. Both bodies could …

Geraldine Finucane: “A deep wound cannot be stitched over and just left because it won’t heal”

Mick Fealty on April 18, 2014, 12:19 pm

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In the week the Victims Commissioner quietly and discreetly left her post, the BBC’s Stephen Sackur conducted an unusually moving and telling interview with Geraldine Finucane, widow of Pat Finucane. I recommend watching the whole thing, but I think the end was the most powerful and universal: There is an analogy that I use quite frequently, which I think sums Northern Ireland up quite well. If you have a wound, a wound of any sort, you treat it a certain …

Victims’ Commissioner sets herself against victims

Turgon on October 3, 2013, 1:38 pm

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Sam McBride from the News Letter has a series of articles interviewing Kathyrn Stone the relatively new victims’ commissioner in which she has expressed views likely to undermine her role as a spokesperson for victims. Stone’s problems seem to come from refusing to state an opinion on some of the most basic of issues relating to victims. Ms Stone declined to say whether the IRA, which killed 1,706 people, or the UVF, which killed 430, were terrorists. When asked whether, …

“The intention is to appoint a single commissioner…”

Pete Baker on March 30, 2012, 12:43 pm

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Apparently the Northern Ireland Executive OFMDFM are advertising for a single Victims Commissioner to replace the four three current encumbents. According to the UTV report The decision to reduce the number of commissioners is understood to have been prompted by the accomplishments of the previously appointed three. Bertha McDougall, Patricia MacBride and Brendan McAllister – who leave the £65,000 posts in May – are believed to have accomplished so much in establishing initial contact with victims that their workload can …

“an important contribution to the debate about the past…”

Pete Baker on July 20, 2010, 4:22 pm

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For what it’s worth… As the BBC reported, yesterday the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, published “a summary of responses to the previous Government’s consultation on the Consultative Group on the Past Report” [pdf file]. But not the current Government’s response… Apparently they’ll be considering the four three Victims Commissioners’ recent “constructive advice” “in detail over the coming weeks”. Pete Baker

“We must deal with the past without living in it.”

Pete Baker on July 1, 2010, 3:55 pm

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The four three Victims Commissioners have published their “Advice to Government” on “Dealing with the Past” [pdf file]. From the document The Commission for Victims and Survivors has concluded that there is a need for the British Government, acting with the support of the Irish Government, to press the political and civic leaders of Northern Ireland to agree structures to deal with the past, beyond the current arrangements of the Historical Enquiries Team and the Police Ombudsman. An Irish Times …