Archive for the ‘Equality’ Category

Shared Future

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

SDLP Youth invited Social Development Minister, Margaret Ritchie to Queen’s University yesterday evening (Monday 30 November 2009) to speak to students about the work her department is doing in delivering a shared future.

There was a healthy mix of students and young people at the event.

Highlighting that 1 in 8 people in the north want to live in a shared neighbourhood, the Minister announced that she is looking at mechanisms that will integrate this public desire into the common selection scheme of the Housing Executive to facilitate this.

Minister Ritchie’s priority on assisting the most vulnerable, in terms of housing and social security, in developing the community’s capacity and in delivering a shared future resonated with a lot of people she was speaking with.

Margaret Ritchie outlined the real need for a dedicated Shared Future Strategy from our government. She rightly highlighted the embarrassment visited upon the north when the DUP and SF both produced their own version of a Shared Future Strategy.

The Minister caught the mood of the room when she said that the public are leaps ahead of the politicians on the need for a shared future. She is right, the public are ahead of our politicians on this, and if the DUP and SF fail to realise that there is a feeling among the public for a shared future, almost organic and innate in nature, then they will suffer the consequences of consistently putting their own party political desires ahead of everything else.

My generation are living a shared future more than any generation in the previous 40 to 50 years; we work, socialise and in many cases study together. So while it is important that government delivers from top down, in terms of shared spaces, legal protections and the like, the people will be building from bottom up on this issue – and our politicians will need to catch up even more.

As Margaret Ritchie said, it’s such a shame that the two dominant parties can’t look past their own selfish interests and put the needs of the people first, particularly on this fundamentally important issue.

Posted in DUP, Equality, Executive, Margaret Ritchie, SDLP, Youth | No Comments »

DUP failing to live up to equality responsibilities

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

It’s quite clear that the DUP is failing to live up to it’s commitments under equality law with respect to the changes under the Review of Public Administration (RPA). Recently the Equality Commission had to step in and correct the actions of Lisburn City Council when it breached it’s own equality scheme and excluded the SDLP from the transition committee; which also breached official Department of Environment guidelines citing proportionality.

The Equality Commission told Lisburn Council that they are in breach of equality law and their own equality scheme after the DUP and UUP colluded and excluded the SDLP.

The DUP, with Minister Poots and MP Jeffery Donaldson in the chamber, argued this week that the necessary legislation would be through in January resolving the issue, and there was therefore no need to follow the equality commissions ruling.

This argument was proved to be false, as the legislation dealing with transition committees is held up with everything else in the Executive, which isn’t really dealing with very much to be honest.

So the DUP, not content to abide by the Equality Commissions ruling proposed that Lisburn Council use an informal system to nominate members to the committee. The UUP, bar one member, supported this. This is a system that can well be used with a Unionist majority to exclude any party.

The Minister has serious questions to answer around this; how can minorities be assured that they will be protected in the new councils if the Minister is over seeing a carve up in Lisburn? What confidence will minorities on other councils have? Why are the DUP not content to share power proportionally? And why is the Minister not abiding by his own Departments guidelines on this set by his predecessor?

I strongly suspect that the Equality Commission will be back to Lisburn when the Unionist parties attempt once again to exclude minorities, and they wonder why others think it’s important to have built in protections!

Posted in DUP, Equality, Executive, Lisburn Council, Matthew McDermott, SDLP | No Comments »

March On

Friday, May 1st, 2009

The launch of the Lisburn LGBT group took place last night in the Cherry Room in Lisburn City Council. Considering the previous unnecessary controversy around the use of council property for civil partnerships, last nights meeting represented a massive step for the advancement of equal rights and treatment for the gay community.

The DUP and Alliance failed to attend, as did the single TUV representative.  

When something such as this event happens, there is no doubt that it represents a major victory for the LGBT community, and every other marganilised group, who in the past has been excluded or faced discrimination. There is no doubt that the legislation that made an event like this possible, has proven to work. And credit must be given to those who fought for and obtained these legislative protections, not least the SDLP.

So when you hear the DUP or others attacking the integrity of such legislation, when you hear them say that the institutions such as the Equality or Human Rights Commissions are worthless, or when you hear some say that a Bill of Rights for NI is pointless, recognise that it is just these things that enable it possible for an event like last nights to happen.

An event that shouldn’t have needed to rely on legislation but unfortunately had to, as some people aren’t willing to recognise that members of the gay community are also our doctors and teachers, our bin men and street cleaners, they are our colleagues and friends, our family and community. They are human beings entitled to human rights – bar none.

Credit must be given to the Lisburn LGBT group and it’s members for organising the event, there was no doubting the feeling in the room last night, history was being made. March On.

Posted in DUP, Equality, LGBT, Lisburn, Lisburn Council, SDLP | 3 Comments »