Robinson and McGuinness outline changes to Parades Bill

First Minister Rt. Hon Peter Robinson, MLA and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness MP, MLA today outlined changes to the draft legislation on Parades and published a summary of the consultation responses.

The First Minister said: "The consultation has now ended and after careful consideration of the many responses received from the organisations and members of the public, we are now proposing to make several key amendments to the draft Bill before it is introduced to the Northern Ireland Assembly in September 2010.

"The primary change will be the removal of all public meetings from the remit of the legislation. The public consultation process indicated concern that open-air and other similar public meetings would be captured by the legislation. This was not the intention and this amendment will absolutely clarify this. Furthermore, we intend to address any confusion about the references to human rights in the legislation to make clear that these references indicate a framework based on the European Convention of Human Rights."

The deputy First Minister said that: "This process brings a new beginning to dealing with parades based on mutual respect and the rights of citizens to be free from all forms of harassment. The new legislation will be fully consistent with international human rights standards. The Bill will now be limited in application to parades and related protest meetings."

The key principles which the Bill will reflect, when dealing with parading issues, include:

• Local people providing local solutions;
• Respect for the rights of those who parade, and respect for the rights of those who live in areas through which they seek to parade. This includes the right for everyone to be free from sectarian harassment;
• Recognising that at time there are competing rights;
• Transparency, openness and fairness; and
• Independent decision making.

The summary report will be available at the OFMDFM website

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