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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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 17
failure of the report by Victims Commissioner Kenneth Bloomfield 49 to deal adequately with state killings added to debate on a ‘hierarchy of victimhood’. 5.3.1 Statistics of the Conflict The figures are testimony to the gendered nature of the conflict. Between 1969 and 1997: 3,585 people were killed. 50 • The dead were predominantly male (91%) • Age: 37% under 24; 53% under 29; 34% under 39 • 53% were civilians with no affiliation to any security force or paramilitary organisation; 28.8% were serving members of the security forces; 12.5% were Republican paramilitaries and 3% were Loyalist paramilitaries • 2.5 persons per 1,000 Catholics; 1.9 persons per 1,000 Protestants were killed • 59% killed by Republican paramilitaries; 28% by Loyalist paramilitaries; 11% by security forces An estimated 40,000 – 50,000 were injured. Bloomfield’s report acknowledged that women were often left ‘to pick up the pieces’. 51 5.4 Women as Victims of the Conflict: 52 During the conflict women were: • Direct victims of paramilitary and state violence – killed, maimed and psychologically damaged • Victims as relatives of those who are hurt or killed • Imprisoned • Victims as relatives of those who are imprisoned • Victims as those who are left particularly vulnerable to the policing, military and paramilitary priorities of the conflict • Victims of domestic violence (increase due to culture of violence and lack of resources for prevention/redress due to priorities for funding the conflict) • Victims of misogynous killings • Living in a militarised/armed environment • Curtailed from freedom of association (punishment by paramilitaries for fraternising with British servicemen, including tarring and feathering) and freedom of movement (stop and search) • Subjected to the militarisation of their children (stop and search, couriers, etc.) • Victims of economic hardship • Victims of the breakdown in community relations • Victims of the shortage of resources for social services such as health and education • Curtailed in terms of freedom of movement and access to safe public transport • Living in an unsafe environment • Victims of discrimination and inequality 49 Bloomfield, K. We Will Remember Them: Report of the Northern Ireland Victims Commissioner, Belfast, NIO, 1997 50 Cost of the Troubles Study cited in Bloomfield, K. We Will Remember Them: Report of the Northern Ireland Victims Commissioner, Belfast, NIO, 1997. See also CAIN database www.cain.ulst.ac.uk for figures pertaining to the conflict. 51 Ibid. 52 See Bell, C. (1998) Women Equality and Political Participation in, DIS/AGREEING IRELAND: CONTEXTS, OBSTACLES, HOPES (eds. James Anderson & James Goodman) Pluto Press, London. The list has been added to. 18
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 and 20: 4. PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN PUBLIC
Page 21 and 22: Ad Hoc Committee - Life Sentences (
Page 23 and 24: 4.7.2 Northern Ireland Office Publi
Page 25: 5. DEALING WITH THE PAST 5.1 The Go
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?