Letter to the Editor: Response to Jeffrey Dudgeon's Attack

01.01.2010

NICEM
Letter to the Editor
7 January 2010

A response to Jeffrey Dudgeon’s attack on Patrick Yu of NICEM (1)

Jeffrey Dudgeon’s reply in the Newsletter on 1 January 2010 to my letter to the Editor just about merits a further response.

I do not propose, in this letter, to engage with the policies of particular political parties but, to take one example, they all rejected the introduction of water charges despite pressure from the direct rule administration in their 2006 manifestos. They have now supported the delay of such water charges for another year, thus supporting a fundamental economic and social right in the form of the right to water. A strong and inclusive Bill of Rights would ensure that, irrespective of party politics, government would have to prioritise basic economic and social human rights for all, and will significantly increase the chances for a lasting peace in Northern Ireland.

There is considerable social and economic deprivation across all communities in Northern Ireland. Social and economic rights in the form of job and benefit protection are necessary to ease the human impact of the economic recession. Further dramatic cuts to public services, coupled with the introduction of water charges, would deny the people of Northern Ireland their basic human right to an adequate standard of living, as enshrined in the international human rights discourse. This discourse recognises that, whilst the government might not be able to ensure instant realisation of such rights due to the limits of available resources, it nevertheless obliges States to take steps towards progressively achieving the full realisation of economic and social rights.

Mr Dudgeon is a fan of the Human Rights Act bringing the civil and political rights of the European Convention of Human Rights into UK law. But the Council of Europe has also produced a complementary European Social Charter which, together with the UN Convenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, is inadequately respected in UK law and by UK authorities. As Her Excellency Mary Robinson once said at a conference in Belfast, ‘there is little point in having a right to vote if you do not have a roof over your head’.

It is therefore dangerously shortsighted to ignore a strong and inclusive Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland, particularly in the context of economic and social rights, and to label the campaign for such a Bill as a futile exercise of an allegedly affluent civil society.
Northern Ireland deserves to get the best possible Bill of Rights, which will ensure that our shared future is a bright one. The Bill of Rights which the Secretary of State is currently offering simply does not achieve this.

This, Mr Dudgeon, is a fact, and NICEM’s consistent position.

__________________________
1)- 21 December 2009 – Original letter to the editor of the Newsletter.
4 January 2010 – Jeffrey Dudgeon replies.

For further information please contact:

Patrick Yu
Executive Director
NICEM
Office: 02890 238645
Mobile: +44 (0) 7710 767 235
[email protected]

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