Freedom from violence and harassment

The Workers Party supports the inclusion of a right to be free from all forms of violence and harassment and refers, in particular, to violence and harassment which is domestic, sexual, gender-related, sectarian or motivated by hate. While we agree that a right to freedom from sectarian violence or harassment or a duty on public authorities to ensure such freedom cannot alone bring about the end of sectarianism it would provide an important building block in the campaign to defeat sectarianism.

Northern Ireland remains a deeply divided society. Children are educated separately. There is a polarisation in terms of where people live. The brutal in-your-face manifestation of sectarianism which sees people assaulted or driven from their homes because of their perceived religious affiliation (or race or sexual orientation) is the mere tip of the iceberg. Beneath the surface lies the deep, hidden, dangerous body of sectarianism which infects society at large and which poisons both the body politic and civil society.

The Workers Party believes that there is one community in Northern Ireland, fractured and divided by sectarianism. Our ideology is founded on the politics of class. We subscribe to the creation of a working class, united and indivisible, which has sufficient power and political class consciousness to transform the society in which we live. 

Every step or action that encourages, incites or promotes division is an obstacle to building a united working class and a gain for the politics of division. The politics and culture of division lacks a programme for social and political transformation. It reinforces the existing social and economic order, especially in its class relations. The Workers Party promotes the ideology of class politics and repudiates the politics of tribal identity.

Equal citizenship

A Bill of Rights grounded on a concept of equal citizenship will play a valuable role in the struggle to end sectarianism. 

The Workers Party also supports the inclusion of a right that no one may be forced out of their home by threats or harassment or evicted without an order of a court and that public authorities must take all appropriate measures to ensure the protection of this right.

The Workers Party believes that the rights of “victims” must be protected ensuring that all victims require protection including rights to redress and to appropriate material, medical, psychological and social assistance. 

Given the revelations about the widespread abuse of children (including institutional abuse) public authorities must take all appropriate measures to ensure the right of every child to be protected and to appropriate support. 

Fundamental civil rights 

Northern Ireland has the experience of power remaining in the hands of one political group for the greater part of the life of the state. This experience and the subsequent period of direct rule witnessed the abuse of political power and the violation of civil and political rights. It is not sufficient for the people of Northern Ireland to remain dependent on the goodwill of the government of the day. Fundamental civil rights should be clearly formulated, unambiguous and should not be conditional upon the whim of the State. 

Northern Ireland has been subjected to emergency legislation since the inception of the state and the apparatus of the state has been enveloped in a shroud of secrecy in which civil and human rights were accorded little importance. The advantage of a Bill of Rights lies partly in its ability to provide reassurance in circumstances where society is undergoing change, particularly political change and uncertainty. 

The great test for a Bill of Rights is likely to arise in circumstances where the state believes or purports to believe that the exigencies of a particular situation require the state to derogate from its obligations. For those reasons the Workers Party supports the view that any derogation clause should be strictly limited and certainly more limited than the derogation clause which the HRA applies to Convention rights. 

A Bill of Rights should afford an expeditious remedy to those whose rights have been infringed. Section 6 of the HRA makes it unlawful for a public authority to act in a way which is incompatible with Convention rights unless it is required to do so to give effect to primary legislation. The HRA does not define “public authority” but expressly includes “courts and tribunals” and “any person certain of whose functions are functions of a public nature”. Under the provisions of the HRA a person is a victim of an unlawful act only if that person would be a victim for the purposes of Article 34 of the ECHR if proceedings were brought in the European Court of Human Rights.

In terms of representative actions or public interest litigation the Convention approach is more restrictive than the approach adopted in judicial review proceedings where an applicant for review must show a “sufficient interest” to obtain standing. 

Defining ‘public authority’

The Workers Party believes that individuals and organisations in addition to victims and the Human Rights Commission should be able to commence human rights cases against public authorities under the provisions of a Bill of Rights and that there should be a more wide-ranging definition of “public authority” for the purposes of the Bill of Rights. Access to a remedy for infringement of a right would be a positive development and the courts have no particular problem dealing with the concept of “sufficient interest” in judicial review proceedings. 

The Workers Party agrees that the rights in a Bill of Rights should be justiciable. A Bill of Rights should contain fundamental principles which would constitute a political statement about the nature of the political institutions established and operated in Northern Ireland. It must commit unequivocally to a secular society. 

The Workers Party believes in a society where citizens are free to practise their religious beliefs subject to respect for the rights of others, to change their religious affiliation or to choose not to hold any religious belief. No church or religious belief should be endorsed or conferred with any special rights or privileged position by the state. Politicians, elected to public office, should not use that office to endorse or express religious views or preferences in the course of their public duties. The Workers Party demands complete separation between church and state and by that we mean there is no place for a special position of any church, denomination or religious belief in the public life or institutions of the state. This must be stated explicitly in a Bill of Rights.