A guest blog piece by Alexander Redpath, Chairman of Lagan Valley Young Unionists and Speaker of Queen's Students' Representative Council.

Dear Sir,

The Human Rights consortium is doing its best to drum up support for the Bill of Rights. However I must urge the people of Northern Ireland to take part in the consultation on the Bill of Rights and express the opinion that the Human Rights Commission’s report would be disastrous for the future of Northern Ireland and that the Secretary of State’s limited proposals are sufficient.

I conform completely to the views laid down by Daphne Trimble in her dissenting report to the bill of rights. My fundamental objections to the commission’s report are that it goes far beyond its remit, is fundamentally undemocratic and represents a wasted opportunity for Northern Ireland.

The Human Rights Commission’s remit was to,

“Advise on the scope for defining…. rights supplementary to those in the European Convention on Human Rights to reflect the principles of mutual respect for the identity and ethos of both communities and parity of esteem.”

In this sense the commission’s report is a failure. The report goes far beyond the European Convention and at many points’ attempts to redefine and change it. It also goes far beyond matters reflecting the particular circumstances of Northern Ireland.
The bill is fundamentally undemocratic. The Bill subverts the power of the Assembly under the Good Friday agreement to reform the election system. Most worryingly of all the bill goes into detail on socio-economic “rights”. These include rights on health, standard of living, accommodation, work, the environment and social security. Their inclusion in the Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland is to give the judiciary a role in government which is properly a role for elected representatives, namely, over the allocation of resources. I do not want Judges to set the level of the minimum wage; or to allocate social housing or to set the level of social security. If the report is implemented all this and more could happen.

My final objection to the report is that the commission, in an orgy of self-indulgence, have squandered their chance to create a bill of rights for Northern Ireland. This report is madness and would make business and government much more difficult. That is why the Secretary of State’s consultation ignores the vast majority of the report and focuses on only two of the commission’s suggestions.
The failure of the Commission to draft a workable report represents ten years and millions of pounds of waste. Monica McWilliams is an intelligent lady who unfortunately acted without common sense, as no government in Western Europe would have accepted her proposals.

It is my view that the eight commissioners responsible for this report should resign their posts. I would also like to commend the bravery and conviction of the dissenting Commissioners Daphne Trimble and Jonathan Bell who at great risk to their own positions had the wisdom to dissent against the lunacy of this report.