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Irish Echo
Nov 23-28 1994
Letters
Pillar of Peace: economic justice
By Inez and Vincent McCormack
Human rights must be central to discussions on Northern Ireland now
taking place involving the administrations of ireland, britain, the
United States and the European Union.
The British government has on six occasions since the foundation of the
Northern Ireland state in 1920 given commitments to equal treatment of
all citizens. At first the promise was that discrimination would not take
place. More recently --since 1976--the commitment was that the government
would end it. We became involved in the Macbride Principles campaign
because of the failure of internal mechanisms to prodeuce real change.
It is often assumed, both by the media and many politicians in Ireland
North and South that inequality is much reduced, that remaining
discrimination can be accounted for by historical factors rather than
current practices, and the political and human rights significance of
discrimination has diminished. This is an example of how propaganda and
self-imposed censorship has led to a serious distortion of reality. The
London Independent, meanwhile, recently reported that "evidence of persisting
discriminationis provided on an almost weekly basis by fair-employment
tribunals."
Findings from the Fair Employment Tribunal confirm that discrimination,
often of the most blatant and ugly kind, remains a reality. The number of
complaints to the tribunal has been rising in the last four years, with
the total paid in awards and settlements to date reaching [pounds] 1
million, about one half paid by publicly funded employers.
A disturbingly high number of tribunal cases have resulted in court
settlements. The tribunal has, therefore, been unable to make a ruling.
Some of these cases have involved publicly funded bodies, and since the
terms of such settlements are confidental, the public does not even know
the size of the bill.
Probably the single most important factor that determined that the
government could not avoid the introduction of new legislation was the
revelation in 1987 that Catholic males were 2.5 times more likely to be
unemployed than Protestants. Yet 1991 census figures show that the
differential is substantially unchanged, with the figure for males at
2.2. For females the figure had risen to 1.7, so overall the ratio has
shown virtually no change.
New figures presented by professor R. Rowthorn of Cambridge University
show that Catholic economic disadvantage has worsened in recent years. In
1991, the percentage of male Catholics without work was 43 percent, while
for non-Catholics it was 26 percent. Averaging figures from the
late 1980s, the percentage of male Catholics without work in the 20-24
years old range was 48 percent while for non-Catholics it was 26 percent.
When the 1989 Fair Employment Act was being debated , the British
government rejected a number of recommendations that would have increased
its impact but promised to hold a review of its effectiveness after five
years. It is already running behind schedule, since the report of the
review is not due until the end of 1995. Even if its recommendations are
acted upon it is unlikely to be the end of the millennium before they
have any effect.
We have, in any case, reason to doubt the seriousness of the exercise.
The review is being coordinated by the Central Community Relations Unit,
a branch of the Northern Ireland Civil Service. We must question the
independence of the review, since government intends to review itself.
On St Patrick's Day 1991 in New York, the British government announced
its intention to introduce equality guidelines for government policy. Six
months later it was forced to withdraw the guidelines following a storm
of protest at their inadequacy. Amended guidelines were finally
introduced at the beginning of 1994.
In 1990 the government announced that it intended to target disadvantage
and social need, and it adopted this as a third spending priority, after
security and the ecomomy. Some four years later, only one of 13
Government departments has even embarked on the program.
What is urgently required is the comprehensive reconstruction of the
northern economy to tackle inequality on the basis of need. This could
promote peace and reconciliation by impacting upon the poorest
Protestants as well as the poorest Catholics. The powerful White House
Committee putting together an aid package for the North must have
assurances that the American dollars will be used fairly.
Also, recently there has been a welcome recognition of the need to
restructure the International Fund for Ireland so that it addresses
inequality and community development. For the sake of its own credibility,
the Fund must have a transparency of purpose, clear accountability and,
crucially must directly involve those who are most affected by inequality.
By demanding a new economic and political deal we can ensure that every
dollar, deutschmark and ecu--and every pound sterling and punt--spent in
Northern Ireland can be used twice: once for jobs and once for justice.
That would not be a bad return. The peace process desperately needs both.
(Inez McCormack, a signatory to the MacBride Principles, is a trade union
official in Northern Ireland. Vincent McCormack, her husband, is a
lecturer at the University of Ulster. Both are veteran civil rights
activists.)
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