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

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9. POLICING Women during the conflict experienced the following with regard to the security forces: 258 • Raids • Arrests • Stop and search • Strip searching • Children (taken off them) • Everyday resistance (keeping your dignity) • Power games • Armed sexism • Partners (I wasn’t the one arresting him. It wasn’t my fault) • Complaints (deemed no case to answer) • Lack of support • Lack of trust vis-à-vis RUC, British Army, Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) • Fear. 9.1 The Good Friday Agreement Policing is deemed a ‘central issue in any society’ in the Agreement, which advocates ‘development of a police service representative in terms of the make-up of the community as a whole’. It is essential that the police service is ‘representative of the society it polices’. The ‘great hurt suffered and sacrifices made by many individuals and their families, including those in the RUC and other public servants’ is acknowledged (the reference to families makes possible an acknowledgement that includes male combatants and participants without adjudicating on the reasons and actors of the conflict). The agreement ‘provides the opportunity for a new beginning to policing in Northern Ireland with a police service capable of attracting and sustaining support from the community as a whole’. What is meant by community is underscored with reference to ‘a new political dispensation which will recognise the full and equal legitimacy and worth of the identities, senses of allegiance and ethos of all sections of the community in Northern Ireland’. While this should ‘inform and underpin the development of a police service representative in terms of the make-up of the community as a whole’ the context suggests that the overriding interpretation of identity, allegiance and ethos is around Catholic/Nationalist and Protestant/Unionist. The new policing structures and arrangements should ensure that the police service is ‘professional, effective and efficient, fair and impartial, free from partisan political control; accountable, both under the law for its actions and to the community it serves; representative of the society it polices’. While advocating that the force should be ‘representative of the society it polices’, fairness and impartiality are defined in terms of ‘partisan political control’ without reference to patriarchal or gendered control. Arrangements ‘should be based on principles of protection of human rights’. An Independent Commission of Policing for Northern Ireland should be established. 9.2 The Patten Report 258 Many headings are from Strong about it All: .Rural and Urban Women’s experiences of the security forces in Northern Ireland, edited by Helen Harris and Eileen Healy 59
The Independent Commission of Policing for Northern Ireland (Patten Commission) called for the creation of the following institutions: The Northern Ireland Policing Board - replacing the Police Authority for Northern Ireland, the Board would hold the policing service publicly to account. The District Policing Partnerships Boards (later called District Policing Partnerships – DPPs) designed to provide police accountability at local level. DPPs ‘represent the critical nexus of police community relations at the grassroots level’. 259 The Office of the Oversight Commissioner - a temporary institution for monitoring implementation of the recommendations of the Patten Commission. 260 As a result of the Patten Commission, the name of the RUC was changed to the Police Service of Northern Ireland. 261 The Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland was established to investigate complaints against the police. 262 Key issues for women were human rights, accountability, equality and representation, and community policing. 9.3 Patten Recommendations on Human Rights Patten made 175 recommendations for change with human rights a central theme of the report. 263 Recommendation 2 suggested a new oath for new and existing police officers, expressing an explicit commitment to upholding human rights, a way of dealing with divided allegiances. Recommendation 3 called for a new Code of Ethics, integrating the European Convention on Human Rights into police practice. 264 Also recommended were human rights training, 265 awareness of human rights, 266 the appointment of a lawyer with specific expertise in human rights, 267 and close monitoring by the Policing Board of the police in relation to human rights. 268 The Secretary of State accepted these recommendations. 269 Recommendations with implications for women included: 9.4 Composition of the Policing Board 270 The new Policing Board should have 19 members. Ten members should be assembly members drawn from the parties that comprise the Northern Ireland Executive, selected on the d’Hondt system, not at the same time holding ministerial office in the Executive. 271 However, had the report approved drawing members from parties in the Northern Ireland 259 Report of the Oversight Commissioner, December 2004 260 www.oversightcommissioner.org 261 www.psni.police.uk 262 www.policeombudsman.org 263 See Recommendation 1 and PSNI Human Rights Programme of Action, September 2004 in response 264 See PSNI Code of Ethics in response 265 Recommendation 4, Patten 266 Recommendation 5, Patten 267 Recommendation 6, Patten 268 Recommendation 7, Patten report. The NIPB appointed Human Rights advisors Keir Stamer QC and Jane Gordon who developed a framework document: Monitoring PSNI Compliance with the Human Rights Act 1998, published December 2003. 269 See Patten Report Updated Implementation Plan, 2001 270 Recommendations 16, 17, 18, 19 271 Patten Report para. 6.11 60
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Women and the Implementation of the
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5.5 Women Victims Post the Good Fri
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Women’s Rights in Transitioning a
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language of the Agreement) this was
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An overall assessment of the succes
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1. RESEARCH 1.1 Sources Primary doc
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2. MAIN FINDINGS The main findings
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3. THE GOOD FRIDAY AGREEMENT In 199
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