THE ENACTMENT OF A BILL OF RIGHTS:
“We have pressed consistently for the establishment of a Bill of Rights in the North and an
all-Ireland Charter of Rights” -Martin McGuinness
The terms of the Good Friday Agreement called for the adoption of a Bill of Rights in the North of Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement was ratified by more than 70% of the voters in the North of Ireland and 94% of the people in the Republic yet, there is still no Bill of Rights. and The newly formed Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission was mandated to put forward recommendations. In 2008, the Commission made proposals to the UK government recommending the recognition of a broad range of social and economic rights. Successive British governments have failed to affirmatively act on these recommendations and today, twenty years after the Good Friday Agreement was ratified by more than 70% of the voters in the North of Ireland, there is still no Bill of Rights for the North. Now, with significant opposition from within the British government to continuing to accept the jurisdiction of European human rights conventions, and a determination to scrap the Human rights Act, it becomes even more important that the rights of Ireland’s citizens in the North be protected when it comes to critical human rights issues.