Bill of Rights review suspended
A major review of proposals for a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland has been suspended until after the general election, it was announced.
Westminster’s Northern Ireland Affairs Committee was compiling a report on the proposals for legislation, which have been at the centre of a long-running political controversy.
But it announced it was suspending its work and would pass its research on to the new committee that will be created after the election.
Unionists and republicans have been divided over the plan for a Bill to enshrine rights which was first promised in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.
The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) was recently criticised by human rights groups who claimed proposals for legislation that government put out to consultation were too weak.
The committee noted the NIO had extended its period of consultation from March 1 until the end of the month.
In an interim report, the committee said it was now impossible for legislation to emerge in the lifetime of the current parliament.
The committee said: “As no such legislation will now emerge, we believe it would be improper of us to bind a future Northern Ireland Affairs Committee to a particular position.
“Therefore, we have chosen in this report to publish the evidence that we have received from organisations and individuals in Northern Ireland and to suggest to our successor committee that it may wish to consider future proposals on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland as part of its work programme.”
It added: “None the less, in order that a new Parliament may be as fully informed as possible, we join the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in urging all those who have the best interests of Northern Ireland at heart to study what is proposed for a future Bill of Rights and to give the Northern Ireland Office their views, whether in favour of or in opposition to a Northern Ireland Bill of Rights.”
