CAJ respond to draft bill on Public Assemblies, Parades & Protests in Northern Ireland

national | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Wednesday July 14, 2010 18:11 by orangecitadel - none

An unjustified restriction on the freedom of assembly and expression in Northern Ireland

The Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) has deemed the Northern Ireland Assembly's draft Bill on Public Assemblies, Parades and Protests inadequate, inconsistent, unclear, and likely to 'create an unjustified restriction on the freedom of assembly and expression'.

In its response to the draft Bill on Public Assemblies, Parades and Protests in Northern Ireland, the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) said that, though it is an important element in a political agreement that has facilitated movement towards a more settled political environment in the North, the proposals contained in the Assembly’s consultative paper ‘create an unjustified restriction on the freedom of assembly and expression’.

The CAJ also observed that though this is the first major piece of Assembly legislation touching on such a sensitive and challenging political issue, it is not of a high standard. They said it is not compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights and they question the Assembly’s legislative competency in relation to the proposed restrictions on rights of assembly.

Furthermore, the CAJ echoed the Garvaghy and Ormeau communities’ complaint that the draft Bill lacks clarity and consistency. And they concluded that the:

CAJ believes that the proposed restrictions on the right to freedom of
assembly, in relation particularly to public meetings, are not compliant with
Article 11(2) of the European Convention on Human Rights. We would
highlight that section 6(2)(c) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 renders any
provision of Assembly legislation that is incompatible with any of the
Convention rights outside the legislative competency of the Assembly. As
such, we believe these proposals need to be revisited.

The full text of the CAJ response is available along with other relevant documents, photographs, and analysis at http://orangecitadel.blogspot.com/

The Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) is an independent NGO affiliated to the International Federation of Human Rights. See http://www.caj.org.uk/