Bill of Rights must set international benchmark, says SDLP

The British government was today urged to allow a new advisory forum on a Bill of Rights in the North the chance to set the standards for other nations.

Nationalist SDLP policing spokesperson Alex Attwood issued the call after the first meeting of the new Bill of Rights Forum in Belfast involving representatives from politics and civic society.

Northern Ireland Office minister David Hanson chaired the meeting of the new body which will make recommendations to the province's Human Rights Commission on what shape a Bill of Rights should take.

Mr Hanson confirmed the government hoped to appoint an independent chair for the forum early in the New Year.

"Once the chair has been appointed I would expect the forum to get down to business early and as a first step to agree its operating procedures," the minister said.

There are 14 politicians on the new body, with 13 people representing various strands from civic society.

Employers, trade unions and churches nominated two people each.

There was one representative each from the children and young people's, disability, ethnic minority, older people, people of different sexual orientation, women's and community/voluntary sectors.

The Democratic Unionists, Sinn Féin, Ulster Unionists and nationalist SDLP sent three members to the meeting, with the cross-community Alliance Party represented by two.

Mr Attwood, who was joined by party colleagues Alban Maginness and Carmel Hanna, spelt out a number of core requirements if the forum was to be a success.

"These include an independent chair of international standing; a well resourced and independent secretariat; a testing but adequate timeframe; mechanisms to consult and talk with wider society and interested groups; reaching out for a bold outcome by agreeing a Bill of Rights that is the standard bearer for other countries to follow," he said.

The West Belfast Assembly member continued: "The real importance of the new Forum and a Bill of Rights is to create the standards that sees all citizens and communities treated equally in all aspects of life.

"If this can be achieved, a new order of things can emerge to move beyond 'the bloodlines of ethnicity' of the past to building 'the lifelines of human rights in the future'."

Sinn Féin's human rights spokesperson Caitriona Ruane, who was joined by Mitchel McLaughlin and Michelle Gildernew, said the meeting was the first step along the road of getting the British Government to deliver on the Good Friday Agreement promise of a Bill of Rights.

The South Down MLA said: "It is now vital that the next steps are put in place. That means an independent chairperson being appointed to oversee this work and a funded secretariat put in place.

"Sinn Féin will actively participate in this process and we look forward to the other parties doing likewise. A proper rights based society threatens nobody and is a key demand of the Good Friday Agreement which must be delivered."