Motion no: 2
Conference notes that at the time of writing, Northern Ireland has been without a devolved power-sharing Government for over 2 years. Conference believes that this represents
a damning indictment of the failure of our elected politicians to genuinely share power in the interests of all the people on the basis of equality and human rights as the Good Friday Agreement intended.
Conference believes that our members, their families and their communities deserve better than a peace which represents merely the absence of the violent conflict that damaged countless lives. Conference agrees that since the Good Friday Agreement was reached there has been regression away from its principles and the non-implementation of its provisions (and the provisions of subsequent agreements) relating to equality and human rights. This has been to the detriment of all.
The absence of political devolution in Northern Ireland has coincided with the economic, social, constitutional and political crisis of the UK
exit from the EU which has and will continue
to undermine the Good Friday Agreement. Conference believes that in the absence of
Congress BDC – Agenda 13
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Motions & Amendments to BDC 2019
political leadership, Congress must continue to be a voice for our members, North and South, who will not allow the peace process to represent the collateral damage of the UK’s exit from the EU.
Conference agrees that direct rule from a Tory Government in Westminster must be avoided but that the institutions cannot be re-established on the same basis on which they collapsed before.
Conference supports the re-establishment of the devolved institutions in Northern Ireland on the basis of genuine power-sharing as provided for under the Good Friday Agreement which delivers for all in Northern Ireland on the basis of respect and equality.
Conference endorses fully the Equality Coalition ‘Manifesto for a Rights Based Return to Power
Sharing’ (2019) on this basis. Conference notes that the Coalition is co-convened by UNISON and the Committee on the Administration of Justice and consists of dozens of civil society organisations, trade unions and the ICTU. Conference notes that this manifesto calls for a rights based return to power sharing centred on three key elements:
Full implementation of the rights provisions of the peace settlement, including the Bill of Rights.
Implementing international obligations and addressing ‘rights deficits.’
Ensuring power is ‘working within the rules’ so as to prohibit discrimination and promote equality of opportunity.
Conference therefore calls on the incoming Executive Council, in line with the objectives of the Northern Ireland Committee’s successful
‘Better Work, Better Lives’ campaign:
to campaign for a return to devolved Government in Northern Ireland on the basis of equality and human rights for all, as set out in the Equality Coalition ‘Manifesto for a Rights Based Return’ (2019); and
to ensure that this campaign seeks to exert maximum pressure on not just political parties in Northern Ireland and the UK Government but also the Irish Government in its role as co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement.
