Conference, September 2007
Former South African Minister and human rights expert, Professor Kader Asmal MP, addressed a large audience at a conference in Belfast entitled ‘Getting the Bill Right’ on Friday 28th September. The conference was organised by the Human Rights Consortium as an opportunity for individuals and organisations from across Northern Ireland to have their say on what should be included in a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.
The event focused on what the specific content of a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland should be. The topics reflected the current working group headings of the Bill of Rights Forum and issues as diverse as children and young peoples’ rights, culture, identity and language rights, through to social and economic rights were debated on the day.
Professor Kader Asmal MP, a former Minister in the South African Government, relayed the South African experience of developing a Bill of Rights and any lessons that could be learned from this process.
Speaking about the importance of a Bill of Rights, Professor Kader Asmal MP said:
“In South Africa the development of a Bill of Rights allowed all our people, all our communities and all our traditions to contribute to the development of a rights-based society which underpinned the new direction that we had embarked upon.
It would be my hope that a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland would also be a key building block that likewise protects the rights of everyone and lays out a blueprint for the shared future that Northern Ireland deserves.”
Delegates and participants on the day were drawn from a wide range of community and voluntary groups, political parties, churches, NGO’s, businesses, academics, trade unions, statutory organisations/civil servants and perhaps most importantly, members of the Bill of Rights Forum.
This is a crucial time for the Bill of Rights process in Northern Ireland, as the Forum has been charged with making recommendations on the content of a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland by the end of March 2008.
Fiona McCausland, Chairperson of the Human Rights Consortium concluded by saying:
“There are only six months left until the reporting deadline for the Bill of Rights Forum. This is a very small window in which to garner the type of public interest, participation and ownership that the Bill of Rights process needs and deserves, in order to guarantee that the eventual Bill of Rights reflects the wishes of the people of Northern Ireland. We have organised this conference in order to help facilitate that type of engagement and would encourage people to get involved in the Bill of Rights debate.”