Agreement Reached in the Multi-Party Negotiations - Transitional ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Unionists or Nationalists, ‘others’ votes could be counted along with them, as a tiebreaking mechanism. The votes of ‘others’ could count within the cross-community safeguard without the need for re-designation, making it an automatic procedure rather than a loaded political choice. The Assembly’s lawyers have found the proposals legally competent but the proposal has not garnered enough support from other political parties 4.4 Women on Committees Creating a Committee for each of the main executive functions of the Northern Ireland Administration, the ‘Chairs and Deputy Chairs of the Assembly Committees will be allocated proportionally, using the d’Hondt system. Membership of the Committees will be in broad proportion to party strengths in the Assembly to ensure that the opportunity of Committee places is available to all members’. 29 There is no obligation on parties to advance gender balance in their nominations. Standing Committees (other than Departmental Committees) and Special or Ad-Hoc Committees may also be established from time to time. At devolution the breakdown of women on the Committees established by the Assembly was as follows: DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEES Agriculture and Rural Development Committee (members 11 - women 0) Culture, Arts and Leisure Committee (11 – 0) Education Committee (11 – 1) †Employment and Learning Committee (11 – 3) Enterprise, Trade and Investment Committee (11 – 2) Environment Committee (11 – 3, including female deputy chair) Finance and Personnel Committee (11 – 1) Health, Social Services and Public Safety Committee (11 – 5) Regional Development Committee (11 – 0) Social Development Committee (11 – 1) † An Act to change the name of the Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment to Department for Employment and Learning was given Royal Assent on 20 July 2001. STANDING COMMITTEES Committee on Procedures (11 – 0) Business Committee (13 – 3) Committee of the Centre (17 – 3) Public Accounts Committee (11 – 2) Committee on Standards and Privileges (11 – 0) Audit Committee (5 – 0) AD HOC COMMITTEES Ad Hoc Committees will be established from time to time to deal with specific timebounded terms of reference that the Assembly may set. Ad Hoc Committee on Flags (NI) Order 2000 (18 – 2) (Reported on 10 October 2000) Ad Hoc Committee - Financial Investigations (NI) Order (11 – 2) (Reported on 6 February 2001) 29 Good Friday Agreement, Strand One, Operation of the Assembly. 11
Ad Hoc Committee - Life Sentences (NI) Order 2000 (11 – 2, including female chair) (Reported on 12 March 2001) Ad Hoc Committee - Proceeds of Crime Bill (11 – 1) (Reported on 29 May 2001) Ad Hoc Committee on Criminal Injuries Compensation (11 – 1) (Reported on 15 November 2001) Ad hoc Committee on Criminal Justice Reform (10 – 2, including female chair) (Reported on 14 January 2002) Ad hoc Committee on Disqualification Legislation (11 - 1) (Reported on 14 June 2002) Ad hoc Committee on proposed Draft Access to Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2002 (11 – 2) (Reported on 2 July 2002) Ad hoc Committee on proposed Draft Firearms (Northern Ireland) Order 2002 (11- 1) As shown above, women were poorly represented on committees, with three of the ten Departmental Committees having no female representation. Likewise three of the six Standing Committees have no women. Nor are all women in the Assembly sitting on committees. Checking through the membership names, the same handful of women crop up. Following the recent British general election of May 5, 2005, the Prime Minister appointed four new Ministers to the NIO office, one of whom is a woman, 30 to assist in the work of overseeing the formerly devolved institutions. 4.5 Legislation The Sex Discrimination (Election of Parliamentary Candidates) Act 2001 permits positive action for women, but the absence of a requirement on political parties to adopt positive action measures means it has not been effective. The Sex Discrimination (Election of Candidates) (Northern Ireland) Order 2003 extended this legislation to Northern Ireland. ‘The Act is permissive and not prescriptive….There are no quotas and therefore no sanctions on political parties if they take no positive action to redress gender imbalance’. 31 According to the OFMDFM the legislation has ‘had little effect’. 32 A serious government effort could offer resources and support for female candidates and incentives to political parties to promote women, potentially tied to the parties ensuring that a percentage of women would be placed in safe seat constituencies. 4.6 Women in Local Government 108 (almost 19%, an increase of 4% since 1998) of councillors in the 26 local government districts are women (compared to 29% in England and Wales). Following appointments in June 2002, four councils have a woman as Mayor/Chairperson and a further five councils have a woman as Deputy Mayor/Vice-Chairperson. 33 Since many of those elected to the NI Assembly had a background in local government politics, women are at a serious disadvantage while they remain under-represented at the local level. 30 Angela Smith 31 United Kingdom Department of Trade and Industry United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 5 th Periodic Report of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland London, UK Government, 2003 32 OFMDFM Gender Matters, A Consultation Document: Towards a cross-departmental strategic framework to promote gender equality for women and men 2005-2015 33 Ibid. 12
Page 1 and 2: Women and the Implementation of the
Page 3 and 4: 5.5 Women Victims Post the Good Fri
Page 5 and 6: Women’s Rights in Transitioning a
Page 7 and 8: language of the Agreement) this was
Page 9 and 10: An overall assessment of the succes
Page 11 and 12: 1. RESEARCH 1.1 Sources Primary doc
Page 13 and 14: 2. MAIN FINDINGS The main findings
Page 15 and 16: 3. THE GOOD FRIDAY AGREEMENT In 199
Page 17 and 18: ecent history of communal conflict
Page 19: 4. PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN PUBLIC
Page 23 and 24: 4.7.2 Northern Ireland Office Publi
Page 25 and 26: 5. DEALING WITH THE PAST 5.1 The Go
Page 27 and 28: failure of the report by Victims Co
Page 29 and 30: • Have resources been put into im
Page 31 and 32: Northern Ireland Act 1998 67 and wi
Page 33 and 34: and domestic violence are included
Page 35 and 36: particular circumstances in Norther
Page 37 and 38: 5.14 Prisoners and the Bill of Righ
Page 39 and 40: symbols of the past (including rena
Page 41 and 42: 75. - (1) A public authority shall
Page 43 and 44: With regard to the economy wide gen
Page 45 and 46: additional grounds, and what about
Page 47 and 48: The Commission is concerned that th
Page 49 and 50: 7. NORTHERN IRELAND HUMAN RIGHTS CO
Page 51 and 52: Essentially, seven years after the
Page 53 and 54: Group on Equality both indicated st
Page 55 and 56: explain that the paragraph ‘is in
Page 57 and 58: equality clause purports to deal wi
Page 59 and 60: 8.3 Equity Monitoring 200 There are
Page 61 and 62: • Females are more likely than ma
Page 63 and 64: ecommended 228 a ‘programme of ac
Page 65 and 66: conferencing system for juveniles.
Page 67 and 68: Gender is ‘piggy-backing’ on th
Page 69 and 70: The Independent Commission of Polic
Page 71 and 72:
oadly reflective of the population
Page 73 and 74:
linked to women with caring respons
Page 75 and 76:
competitions for police officers (u
Page 77 and 78:
9.8.7 PSNI and Equity Monitoring ov
Page 79 and 80:
9.11.4 Other Policing Challenges De
Page 81 and 82:
with not the same emphasis as the i
Page 83 and 84:
REFERENCES Bell, C. (2003) PEACE AG
Page 85 and 86:
____ (2004) Model Equal Opportuniti
Page 87 and 88:
____ (2003) ‘New Era for Local Po
Page 89:
____ (2003) Peace Agreements As A M
show all

Agreement Reached in the Multi-Party Negotiations - Transitional ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?