Finding Consensus in Northern Ireland on Protection of Rights

Thank you Monica …… for your kind introduction.

My thanks must go as well to the organising committee of this “McCluskey Civil Rights Summer School” for making today’s event happen.

My first duty is to record the apologies of my party colleague Mark Durkan who was due to address you this morning. Mark had to be in Boston this morning to represent the party at the funeral of our friend Senator Edward Kennedy. It is perhaps, apt, that I use this opportunity to pay tribute to Senator Kennedy, a true friend of Ireland north and south.

Thousands of words and a some platitudes have been spoken and written about Senator Kennedy over the past few days. The majority were sincere. Others were shameful. Let me be clear. The Ted Kennedy I knew was utterly opposed to violence. He stood up for what he knew was right and stood out against what he knew was wrong.

Emerging from the high hopes and the spirit of the American Civil Rights Movement in the late 60’s, he was a champion for civil liberties, provided a voice for the voiceless and was a true advocate for the fundamental rights of all people.

His deep desire for social justice for all and his perseverance, principle and progressive attitude towards creating a world in which all people can live in dignity and freedom was shared by so many of us including my good friends Patricia and Conn McCluskey who this school is appropriately named after.

For it was courage, commitment and character of those like the McCluskeys, who when faced with petty injustice and naked bigotry, rose against it, marched to end it and stood up to the oppressors by sitting in the streets.

Their successes were accomplished:

• without firing a single bullet,
• without planting a single bomb or
• without drawing a drop of anyone else’s blood.

Their achievements then were considerable but there is still so much work still to be done to ensure the true legacy of the civil rights generation. The SDLP’s focus has been and always will be the achievement of an expansive Bill of Rights – one worthy of the name and nothing less. It is what the SDLP want and it is what the majority of people on this island, north and south voted overwhelmingly for when they endorsed the Good Friday Agreement. At the time all parties recognised the need for a Bill of Rights including the Unionist parties who accepted all the arguments.

People should now be wary of any party that has changed it’s position with regards to the need for the Bill of Rights especially those who did so only after coming into government. Above all the Bill of Rights should be a shield to protect ordinary people in our society not a badge for the system.

Recently, the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee on which I sit at Westminster heard evidence that 83 per cent of people in the North believe it is important that we have a meaningful Bill of Rights. It confirmed that the wider community knows the real value of human rights protection – the political community should follow. The Bill of Rights cannot be held up any longer. We need delivery not delay.

Nor will the SDLP stand idly by and watch it be ditched or deferred by the DUP as a bargaining chip in their negotiations for the devolution of policing and justice. We will continue to stand up against those who work for the rejection of the proposed Bill of Rights, stand up for the work of the Human Rights and Equality Commission and utterly oppose any unpicking of the Good Friday Agreement.

The British government should not be allowed to sideline or subvert the proposals of the Human Rights Commission.

That remains a major risk.
That is not what is needed.
That is not what the community really wants.

The protection of human rights is central to the G.F.Agreement and the better future for all of us that it promised. Therefore, the Bill of Rights should not be negotiated away as some sort of bargaining chip to secure the short-term aims of other parties.

In recent years there has been a small but growing chorus of complaints from unionist representatives, and particularly the DUP, about unfair treatment of the Protestant community in certain categories of employment.

We should take them very seriously. We must not reject them because we suspect the political motives of those who are raising them; that much at least we should have learned from the 1960s. We must demonstrate that respecting a right is not a concession.

We in the SDLP are willing to join with the DUP or any other Party in confronting injustice for any section of our society in genuine circumstances but not in circumstances manipulated or contrived for some political Advantage

We must demonstrate, indeed prove, that rights belong to all and are not the political property of one community or any party.

From that position we can and will grow consensus.

Without that demonstration there won’t be consensus

And we in the SDLP firmly believe in creating a future where a reconciled people can live together on this Island, in a united, just and prosperous society.

A place where individual people can achieve their full potential

While the violence may now have largely ended we still have a deeply divided society.

We in the SDLP know that the recent conflict pervaded and corrupted many aspects of our lives.

We also believe that a functional bill of rights that improves the daily lives of working people can create much common ground in our divided society

– principles upon which we can agree despite our differences.

– On such common ground we can build a shared future.

Reconciliation, coming to terms with our past and our differences,

remains the biggest challenge facing our community.

For our community to grow together we must, live together, work together, play together, socialise together. While some other parties are happy for co-existence, apartheid, segregation and carve-up

For the SDLP this is totally unacceptable.

To deliver a Shared Future, we cannot have politicians dividing the spoils of power selfishly between themselves or allocating resources for narrow Party political advantage.

Whatever our political differences

Our real goal must be to create enough space for all to be able to work together on a common Political project for the common good… both within NI and in the wider context of the Island as a whole

We believe in building a truly shared future where our people, Catholic, Protestant, and Dissenter

Nationalist, Unionist and New immigrant

are living side by side in spirit not only of tolerance, and a sense of fairness but of mutual trust and respect. 

Just because our two communities have at times different cultural and political aspirations does not mean we should remain separated, divided and in conflict. 

A shared future will not come about by chance, or by exhortation. Those of us who believe in it will have to work at it and build it, block by block.

The SDLP’s vision is of a shared future on this Island where all our people have the same life chances and feel comfortable and safe together – unthreatened at work, at home or at play.

For Northern Ireland and indeed the Island as a whole to flourish in the world economy we must become a welcoming society.

We must recognize the value of our new citizens and realise that the success of our immigrant communities is a success for all of us and benefits us all.

We have come far since the inception of the Civil Rights movement in terms of voting rights, housing rights, employment rights etc….

 It would be irresponsible and reprehensible to ignore the fact that we still live in a deeply divided society.

There is a responsibility on all of us, particularly at political and civic leadership level, to do all within our power to move from a

DIVISIVE PAST TO A SHARED FUTURE.

This objective must be the key driver of any Civil Rights agenda for the next 40 years.

A shared society is one that is open and at peace with it’s self where opportunity and wealth is shared, where respect for difference is the norm.

But what else does ‘a shared future’ mean to the proverbial man in the street?

What does this ‘shared future’ look like?

What does it mean and how will it impact on the everyday lives of the people on this island north and south, and in particular, how will it improve the quality of life and life prospects of the marginalised in our society?

…… Those most in need of economic, social and political justice.

That is the biggest challenge in setting out to deliver a ‘shared future’.

         Making it relevant to  the lives of those on the margins

The second challenge is to articulate this shared future in a way that ordinary people can relate to, identify with, embrace and take ownership of.

It involves taking the abstract legal and legislative concept of a shared future and distilling it down to a list of practical realities.

Practical steps that are palpable and make a real difference to the every day lives of all the people on this island.

In essence the shared future agenda is about creating the space, conditions and atmosphere where tolerance, acceptance and respect for difference especially among the dispossessed and marginalised in our communities can flourish.

But equally, for this is the other side of the shared future coin, it is about acknowledgement, acceptance and embracement of our similarities and familiarities.

It’s about recognition of the fact that the poor quality of life and very limited future life prospects and opportunities for a young poorly educated man living on the Shankill are exactly the same as those of his counterpart living in complete segregation a few yards up the road in Ardoyne.

And a shared future is about our Executive taking the concrete policy and funding steps to enhance the life chances in a meaningful way  for every Child whether from the Shankill or the Ardoyne;

to give them real and equal opportunities to fulfil their potential so that the option of a being a paramilitary or an-ex paramilitary  isn’t the only ‘career’ option open to them in order to make some money and garner self esteem and ‘standing’ in their local communities.

In short, a shared future is about the recognition and acceptance of commonalities – and the definition and articulation of shared problems, shared challenges and hence shared solutions regardless of ones religious, national, class or racial identity. 

we have to tackle poverty by creating opportunity, encouraging enterprise and supporting those in real need.

It will take time to build trust in each other. In the meantime we need the strongest possible guarantees for our personal and civic integrity.

The vehicles for delivery of the Shared Future:

VOTING

The Civil Rights fought a long heard battle for equality in the OMOV.

But the battle now is the move away from voting along sectarian lines.

The battle now is to reconnect, inspire and lead people away from seeing elections as purely sectarian headcounts.

To encourage the public to see elections as their opportunity to choose between competing policies and visions of what our society should be and the road map to deliver that vision. Not see elections as a battle between two bitter self-propelling extremes. 

HOUSING

Yes the Civil Rights Movement has moved mountains in terms of achieving housing rights.

But there is still a considerable journey to make.

We must create shared housing. This is the most direct way of bringing divided communities together.

Minister Margaret Ritchie is wholeheartedly committed to this agenda – Girwood, but she needs support in the face of bitter sectarian opposition to implement it.  (Emphasise Margaret’s progress)

EDUCATION

Education is probably the greatest single vehicle to delivering equality of opportunity for all…empowering the children of those on the margins

A sound education system in which everyone has trust and confidence is the backbone of a healthy society, a healthy economy and a healthy political system.

But under our current Education Minister what do we have – an education system in meltdown where, in terms of post primary transfer, chaos, mayhem, confusion and mistrust rein for principals, teachers, parents and young children alike.

Caitriona Ruin, as she has come to be known because of the devastation she leaves in her wake, is creating a deeply divided and sectarian education system. (Here I would talk about the multiple tests a child will have to sit in strange and unfamiliar surrounds if he/she wants the option of being able to choose between going to either a catholic school or protestant school. Few parents will want to put their 11 yr old through this trauma. The result – the deepened segregation of our children and young people).  

PUBLIC FINANCE

Financial, economic, societal and political costs of a divided society.

The need for shared spaces, shared facilities, shared resources.

CONCLUSION

The horrific murder of Kevin McDaid showed naked, brutal, savage sectarianism and hatred in its raw form.

Sectarianism is very much alive, and groups like the Dissidents are thriving on it and nurturing this hatred.

Increased attacks on GAA property and Orange Halls.

In response we get selective condemnation and moral indignation from the two main parties in the Executive.

I believe that Hugh Orde is right.

Political leadership is failing to lead and deliver on the desperately needed shared future.

The vital next phase of our post conflict transformation.

Instead those parties on center stage prefer to put all their energy into ensuring there is gridlock and deadlock in a zero sum game of political football.

What they to fail to see,  is that they are playing this irresponsible game with people’s lives.

People like Kevin McDaid.

The Civil Rights Movement achieved so much in the late 60s and early 70s but to finish the job there is still so much that we can and we must do. 

Delivering the shared future is vital to the next phase of our political development it is essential to the stability and prosperity of this island.

For me it is the vital cog in finishing the job we started way back in ‘68 

And for those of us, who still believe in according respect and rights to all, who still believe in a bill of rights, our work goes on, our cause endures, our hope still lives and our dream will never die.

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