Delivering Equality: Equality Mainstreaming and Constitutionalisation of Socio-Economic Rights

Smith, Anne; McLaughlin, Eithne

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1504645

Cited by 6 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…As a result, Unionists are often resistant to measures that seek to restrict the exercise of governmental power, which has informed their resistance to economic and social rights being considered legally enforceable human rights. 78 In addition, Unionist self-identity is closely aligned to the State. Thus, Unionists resist the work of CAJ and other human rights practitioners in monitoring and criticising the State, even though such monitoring is conducted in accordance with international human rights treaties, which have been ratified by the UK government and adverse rulings from the ECtHR, with which the UK government has committed itself to complying.…”

Section: Communal Narratives Of the Causes Of And Responsibilities Fomentioning

confidence: 99%

Metaconflict and international human rights law in dealing with Northern Ireland's past

Mallinder¹

2019

CILJ

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In many post-conflict societies, political actors battle to ensure the dominancy of their preferred narratives regarding the causes of and responsibilities for past violence. They wage these conflicts about the conflict to instrumentalise narratives of the past to serve their contemporary political aims, but in doing so, they contribute to the endurance of societal divisions which can have destructive effects on the promotion of reconciliation and political stability. Metaconflicts can be particularly heated with respect to the design and implementation of measures to deliver victims' rights to truth, justice and reparations, as it is through these processes that competing and complex communal narratives of the past are exposed and challenged. This article interrogates how metaconflicts shape political actors' engagement with or resistance to international legal obligations to investigate and prosecute past violations. The approaches of Northern Ireland's Unionist political parties and Unionist-aligned organisations to the United Kingdom's obligations under the European Convention of Human Rights are used as a case study. Through theoretically informed qualitative analysis of publicly available submissions made by these groups to an official consultation and parliamentary inquiries taking place during 2018, this article identifies four strategies used by Unionists to resist approaches to dealing with the past that they view as contrary to their interests. On this basis, the article argues that these actors understand law as a means to construct and provide official recognition for communally resonant moral and social categories and norms, and that, as such, legal principles such as the equality of the law, nondiscrimination and independence within the criminal justice process are viewed as secondary to political concerns. It concludes that reducing the metaconflict's destructive effects requires all parties to recognise the need for political generosity and compromise and to develop more substantive engagement with the principles of universality and equality underpinning international human rights law.

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Section: Communal Narratives Of the Causes Of And Responsibilities Fomentioning

confidence: 99%

Metaconflict and international human rights law in dealing with Northern Ireland's past

Mallinder¹

2019

CILJ

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“…While the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement (GFA) and Section 75 of the 1998 Northern Ireland Act are clear in conferring a positive obligation to promote 'equality of opportunity', equality of opportunity itself may have 'timid' or 'robust' applications. Smith & McLaughlin (2010) identify 'timid' presentations of the model which are minimalist, light touch and process-orientated, whereas 'robust' interpretations are expansive, focusing on the use of affirmative action to impact outcomes. Even within the formal prescription of 'equality of opportunity', then, bureaucratic discretion plays a critical role.…”

Section: Impartialitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Gendering the institutional legacies of the Northern Ireland senior civil service

Rouse¹

2018

Administration

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The adverse gender outcomes associated with post-conflict power-sharing arrangements contrast starkly with the socially transformative promise of the framework peace agreements which produce them. Scholarship that has sought to analyse the adverse gender outcomes which occur on imple - mentation has largely focused on the complexities of power-sharing institutional architecture and the role of elite political actors within it. This article makes the case for a new research direction. Parallel research in the field of post-conflict public administration indicates that the complexity of power-sharing institutional arrangements may provide increased opportunity structures for the use of bureaucratic discretion. While use of bureaucratic discretion among elite bureaucrats in Northern Ireland was found to be grounded in core public service values (O’Connor, 2015), feminist institutional analysis exposes those ostensibly benign values (neutrality, objectivity and impartiality) as distinctly gendered phenomena when mediated through the prism of gendered organisational culture (Chappell, 2002, 2006). This article considers the history and specificity of the Northern Ireland civil service and in particular its elite cohort of decision-makers - the senior civil service (SCS) - with a view to excavating the particular institutional legacies which may imbue SCS values and culture. In doing so it asks whether gendered institutional legacies have the potential to function as structural inhibitors to formal provisions for gender equality and socially transformative policy in Northern Ireland’s post-conflict dispensation.

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“…The second requires them to have regard to the desirability of promoting good relations between "persons of different religious belief, political opinion or racial group". Public authorities must develop a plan for the execution of the duties (Smith and McLaughlin, 2009; see also Schedule 9 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998): screening to see if an adverse equality impact among any of an authority's policies is possible; an impact assessment of the adverse effect; and an assessment of how it could be ameliorated. In developing the plan, public authorities are obliged to consult all groups likely to be affected before submitting their plans to the Equality Commission Northern Ireland (ECNI).…”

Section: Directions and Channels For Learning: The Policies Involvedmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first statutory duty, in particular, was potentially transformative in the extent to which it provided for participation by affected groups in dialogue with policy-makers about the steps to be taken and in approval of plans submitted by public authorities, generating considerable international interest (Squires, 2007). Disappointment in EU mainstreaming has arisen and some particular constraints in NI have been identified: on capacities among public servants and on the ability of under-resourced groups to provide sustained engagement in dialogue and commentary on hundreds of Section 75 plans (Office of First Minister and deputy First Minister (OFMDFM, 2003;Northern Ireland Office (NIO), 2004;Smith and McLaughlin, 2009). But it is these public duties, together with pre-existing obligations on many employers (see below), that make NI the UK's 'pathfinder' in ways to combat discrimination, as noted by Hepple (2010: 11).…”

Section: From Where Did the Statutory Duties Emerge And Who Promoted mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the wake of the finding of 'institutional racism' in the Metropolitan Police by the inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence, NI's Section 75 was used as a model for the public sector duty in the Race Relations Act 2000 (Spencer, 2008: 10;Hepple, 2010: 13). Positive public sector duties were also adopted in GB in respect of disability in 2005 and gender in 2007 (Hepple, 2010: 13;Smith and McLaughlin, 2009). Discussion (with NI in mind) of a generic public sector duty was present throughout the debate leading to the Equality Act 2010 (Cabinet Office, 2007;DCLG, 2007a;2007b;NICEM, 2009).…”

Section: Learning Positive Lessons; Public Sector Dutiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Policy Learning: Equality and Human Rights in Northern Ireland, Ireland and Great Britain

Meehan

2012

Regional & Federal Studies

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This article is about policy learning or diffusion in the field of equality and human rights across Ireland and the United Kingdom (UK). It first outlines the axes along which policy learning has taken place, or could do so, and the policies that are the subject of learning. It then discusses internal policy learning in Northern Ireland (NI) on the key issue of public sector duties. Learning is then examined between NI and Ireland; between NI and Great Britain (GB); and between Ireland and GB. These sections involve private and public employers, as well as the public sector duties, and touch on institutional design. In conclusion, it is suggested that it is not only because of the banking, fiscal and economic crises in Ireland and the UK that learning opportunities have been undermined. This case study demonstrates the importance of the contrast between politicians with their "limited attention spans" and the more analytical wider policy community of professionals and interest groups. Power relations between them are a significant factor in degrees of superficiality or profundity.

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Delivering Equality: Equality Mainstreaming and Constitutionalisation of Socio-Economic Rights

Cited by 6 publications

References 8 publications

Metaconflict and international human rights law in dealing with Northern Ireland's past

Metaconflict and international human rights law in dealing with Northern Ireland's past

Gendering the institutional legacies of the Northern Ireland senior civil service

Policy Learning: Equality and Human Rights in Northern Ireland, Ireland and Great Britain

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