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

into the community which would be supported by providing assistance for employment,
retraining and education.
5.2 Truth Telling
As the question over forms of truth telling still hovers, while in office the former Secretary
of State for Northern Ireland, Paul Murphy, accepted the need for a consultation process
on appropriate mechanisms. Women need to be included in this process if the terms are
not to be dictated solely by the chief protagonists (usually male) of the conflict. 44 In a
submission to the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, the Northern Ireland
Women’s Coalition favoured the creation of a special court, 45 such as the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. This court ‘could go some way to provide a
forum for victims, to find out new information in unresolved cases, and to ground the
new, peaceful society into a judicial rights based culture’. Extending the narrative of the
conflict beyond the ‘frontline’ the Coalition advocates that the right to tell their story
should not only be given to ‘victims of the Troubles’ but ‘anyone who has suffered and
been made to feel victimised, whether by the events of the Troubles, through crime,
domestic violence, or psychological abuse, must receive necessary support from the State
in order to cope with their distress’. 46
In the event of a truth commission being established, it should have due regard to gender
balance in the appointment of commissioners or train commissioners in gender-related
issues. Essentially, women should be pro-active agents rather than passive victims in the
process. The South African Commission found it necessary to provide special hearings for
women to tell their story. Explaining the reasons for doing so the Commission deemed
that in establishing the extent of past human rights violations: ‘The antecedents,
circumstances, factors and the contexts of such violations, as well as the motives of such
violations, as well as the perspectives of the persons responsible for committing such
violations should be established.’ 47 Violence perpetrated by both State and non-State
actors would be investigated.
In the absence of a formal state-led mechanism, community-based projects have facilitated
truth telling. 48
5.3 Victims
The Victims’ Commission was tasked with looking ‘at possible ways to recognise the pain
and suffering felt by victims of violence arising from the troubles of the last 30 years,
including those who have died or been injured in the service of the community’. The
44 See for example concerns of Republican ex-prisoners around truth telling: ‘accessing truth from the British
state concerning its activities during the conflict; providing information which may be of assistance to
victims in order to promote healing and national reconciliation; addressing the uneven use of state forces
which have criminalized republicans while giving an amnesty to British state agents. Expunging “criminal”
records must be an outcome of any meaningful truth process; the need for acknowledgement and
participation of the British state in any truth process; a completely independent and impartial oversight of
any mechanism or process’. www.coiste.ie
45 NIWC, A Response to ‘Making a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland’ from the Northern Ireland Women’s
Coalition, 2001
46 Ibid.
47 Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Report: TRC and Gender, Johannesburg, 1996.
48 One such project in Ardoyne led to publication of a 543-page book containing local testimonies
ARDOYNE: THE UNTOLD TRUTH. Later used in a case study, with no gender dimension, the key findings are
nonetheless interesting. See the Ardoyne case study in Lundy & McGovern Community, ‘Truth-telling’ and
Conflict Resolution
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