‘Exploring the local: vernacularizing economic and social rights for peacebuilding within the Protestant/Unionist borderland community in Northern Ireland’

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the knowledge, understanding and opinions of the Protestant/Unionist borderland communities in Northern Ireland towards economic and social rights (ESR). The article seeks to establish whether economic and social rights have transformative potential for protecting and promoting their rights in the first instance and for building and sustaining peace within their communities. Based upon new primary data gathered from a small-scale empirical study, the article explores local grassroots experiences of ESR. It also examines the particularities of the post-conflict legacy in the borderlands and its impact upon attitudes to human rights and the peace process. The central contention is that despite the historical and political problematic perceptions of human rights for many in the Protestant/Unionist population of the borderlands, evidence shows there are opportunities to engage such communities with ESR in a meaningful and positive way. By vernacularizing economic and social rights, they can be made meaningful and useful to these communities, both for protecting and promoting their ESR and as a tool for peacebuilding within Northern Ireland.

KEYWORDS:

• Economic and social rights
• vernacularization
• peacebuilding
• Protestant/Unionist
• Northern Ireland

Data availability statement

Data supporting this study is a closed data set available only to the author.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Dr Amanda Cahill-Ripley is a Lecturer in Law at Lancaster University Law School, UK. She is an expert in international human rights law, specifically economic, social and cultural rights. Her current work focuses on such rights in the context of conflict, peacebuilding (including transitional justice) and sustainable development. She has also published extensively on the rights to water and food. Dr Cahill-Ripley is Academic Lead on the project ‘Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Sustaining Peace: Developing New Insights into Peacebuilding’. She is currently working on her second monograph to be published with CUP entitled ‘Peacebuilding and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Enhancing Human Security’.

ORCID

Amanda Cahill-Ripley http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8155-6371

Notes

1. The use of the terms Protestant and Unionist are based upon self-identification of the participants, based on culture, religion and political persuasion.

2. Cahill-Ripley, ‘Reclaiming the Peacebuilding Agenda: Economic and Social Rights as A Legal Framework for Building Positive Peace – A Human Security Plus Approach to Peace-Building’, Human Rights Law Review 2 (2016): 223; Cahill-Ripley and Hendrick, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Sustaining Peace: An Introduction, Report (Geneva: Fredrich Ebert Stiftung, March 2018).

3. Cahill-Ripley, ‘Reclaiming’, 225.

4. Smith, McWilliams and Yarnell, Political Capacity Building: Advancing a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland: Transitional Justice Institute/Ulster University, 2014, 44 at https://www.ulster.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/58271/Advancing_a_BOR_NI.pdf; Smith, McWilliams and Yarnell, ‘Does Every Cloud Have a Silver Lining: Brexit, Repeal of the Human Rights Act and the Northern Ireland Bill of Rights’, Fordham International Law Journal 1 (2016): 79 at 84; Smith and Harvey, ‘Where Next For a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland?’ Research Project including a Draft Bill of Rights at https://www.ulster.ac.uk/research/institutes/transitional-justice-institute/research/current-projects/where-next-for-a-bill-of-rights-for-northern-ireland; Northern Ireland Office, Consultation Paper, A Bill of Rights For Northern Ireland: Next Steps November 2009, para 3.20, 19.

5. See the House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, A Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland: An Interim Statement, Sixth Report of Session 2009–10 Report, HC 236, Session 2008-09, 24 March 2010, Written evidence from Northern Ireland Human Rights Consortium (Ev36), 47, paras 11, 12; Northern Ireland Human Rights Consortium, Bill of Rights Northern Ireland Overdue (Belfast: HRC, 2014), 32.

6. For the PUP position, see Progressive Unionist Party, ‘Moving Forward’ website, http://pupni.com/assets/images/policies/Justice.pdf; Ulster Unionist Party, Ulster Unionist Party Position on a Bill of Rights at 2. https://uup.org/our-vision/policy-papers ; For the DUP position see Smith, McWilliams, Yarnell, Political Capacity, 40; Bill of Rights Forum, Final Report, Recommendations to the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland, 31 March 2008, 86.

7. Curtis, Human Rights as War by Other Means – Peace Politics in Northern Ireland (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014), 39.

8. There are limited exceptions, for example see Bell, Jarman and Harvey, Beyond Belfast – Contested Spaces in Urban, Rural and Cross-Border Settings, Community Relations Council and Rural Community Network, November 2010.

9. See Spencer, ‘The Garden Centre Prod Explained’, Blog for The New Irishman, October 23rd 2015. http://brianjohnspencer.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-garden-centre-prod-explained.html.

10. For example, see, Mac Ginty and Richmond, ‘The Local Turn in Peace Building: A Critical Agenda for Peace’, Third World Quarterly 5 (2013): 763; Paffenholz, ‘Unpacking the Local Turn in Peacebuilding: A Critical Assessment towards An Agenda for Future Research’, Third World Quarterly 5 (2015): 857; Mac Ginty, ‘Where Is The Local? Critical Localism and Peacebuilding’, Third World Quarterly 5 (2015): 840.

11. Engle Merry, ‘Anthropology and International Law’, Annual Review of Anthropology 35 (2006): 99; Engle Merry, ‘Transnational Human Rights and Local Activism: Mapping the Middle’, American Anthropologist 108 (2006): 38; Goodale and Engle Merry, eds., The Practice of Human Rights- Tracking Law Between the Global and the Local (Cambridge: CUP, 2007).

12. Lamb, ‘Loyalty and Human Rights: Liminality and Social Action in A Divided Society’, The International Journal of Human Rights 6 (2013): 994.

13. Goodale, Human Rights at the Crossroads (Oxford: OUP, 2013).

14. Engle Merry, ‘Transnational’, 39.

15. Ibid.

16. Ibid.

17. For example, see Brysk, Speaking Rights to Power – Constructing Political Will (Oxford: OUP, 2013).

18. Engle Merry, ‘Transnational’, 41.

19. Snow et al. and Tarrow in Engle Merry, ‘Transnational’, 41.

20. Snow quoted in Engle Merry, ‘Transnational’, 41.

21. NB. Where participants raised the issue of cultural rights this has been noted.

22. See note 4.

23. Smith, ‘The Unique Position of National Human Rights Institutions: A Mixed Blessing?’ Human Rights Quarterly 4 (2006): 904 at 911.

24. Lamb, ‘Loyalty’, 1001.

25. For example, see Mike Nesbitt, Leader of the UUP, Interview for Smith, McWilliams, Yarnell, Political Capacity, 44.

26. Smith, ‘Unique Position’, 911; Smith, McWilliams, Yarnell, Political Capacity, 22. See for example, Joint Declaration on Human Rights and Equality (Agreed and co-signed by; Michelle O’Neill MLA, Assembly Leader and Vice-President of Sinn Féin; Colum Eastwood MLA, Leader of the Social Democratic and Labour party as well as Naomi Long MLA, Leader of the Alliance party for Northern Ireland and Steven Agnew MLA, Leader of the Green Party NI), 13 June 2018, http://www.sinnfein.ie/contents/49774.

27. Lamb, ‘Loyalty’, 1001.

28. Engle Merry, ‘Anthropology’, 109. See also Engle Merry, ‘Transnational’, 38–51; Goodale and Engle Merry, Practice of Human Rights.

29. Knight, Small-scale Research (London: Sage, 2001), 127.

30. Liamputtong, Qualitative Research Methods, 4th ed. (Oxford: OUP, 2013) Chapter 3, 51 &; Chapter 4, 74; Knight, Small-scale, 61; 70; 87; Denscombe, The Good Research Guide for Small Scale Research Projects (Buckingham: OUP, 1998) Chapter 6, 87; Chapter 7, 109.

31. Denscombe, Good Research, 84–85.

32. There were 7 participants.

33. Theoretical sampling is selecting participants who meet given criteria, Knight, Small-scale, 121. See also purposive sampling in Liamputtong, Qualitative Research, 14; Denscombe, Good Research, 15.

34. Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 6 June 2008, E/2008/76, para.39, https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/ESCR/E_2008_76_en.pdf.

35. Liamputtong, Qualitative Research, 26.

36. Participant 2.

37. Participant 1.

38. Participant 3.

39. Participant 2.

40. Participant 1.

41. Participant 5.

42. Participant 6.

43. Interview 4.

44. Ibid.

45. Ibid.

46. Interview 2.

47. Ibid.

48. Participant 2.

49. Participant 6.

50. Interview 2.

51. Interview 5.

52. Participant 5.

53. Participant 1.

54. Participant 7.

55. Participant 6.

56. The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission is an independent statutory body first proposed in the Belfast Agreement 1998 and established in 1999 by the Northern Ireland Act (1998).

57. Participant 1.

58. Participant 2.

59. Participant 6.

60. Participant 7.

61. Participant 4. Other participants noted a problem but did not specify what it was: ‘It is flawed in its present form,’ (Participant 3) or ‘Rubbish’ (Participant 5).

62. Interview 2.

63. Ibid.

64. The Belfast Agreement 1998, Rights, Safeguards and Equality of Opportunity, para. 4.

65. Participant 3.

66. Participant 1.

67. Participant 4.

68. Participant 2.

69. See note 6.

70. Northern Ireland Act 1998 Part VII Human Rights and Equal Opportunities, s.75. See also s.73–78; Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, Gaps in equality law between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, 6 March 2014 at http://www.equalityni.org/ECNI/media/ECNI/Consultation%20Responses/2014/Gaps-in-Equality-Law-in-GB-and-NI-March-2014.pdf; G. McKeeverand F. Ni Aolain, ‘Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: Enforcing Socio Economic Rights in Northern Ireland’, European Human Rights Law Review 2 (2004): 158.

71. Scotland Act 2016 s.38.

72. K. Boyleand E. Hughes, ‘Identifying Routes to Remedy for Violations of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’, The International Journal of Human Rights 22, no. 1 (2018): 43–69 at 47.

73. First Minister’s Advisory Group on Human Rights Leadership, ‘Recommendations for a New Human Rights Framework to Improve People’s Lives – Report to the First Minister’, December 10, 2018, p. 31 at http://humanrightsleadership.scot/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/First-Ministers-Advisory-Group-on-Human-Rights-Leadership-Final-report-for-publication.pdf.

74. The Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure 2011, Sect. 1(1) (a)(b)(c) at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/mwa/2011/2/pdfs/mwa_20110002_en.pdf. See also, Llywodraeth Cymru/Welsh Government, Children’s Rights Scheme 2014 – Arrangements for having due regard to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) when Welsh Ministers exercise any of their functions, National Assembly for Wales, 29 April 2014, p. 5. https://gov.wales/docs/dsjlg/publications/cyp/140501-childrens-rights-scheme-2014-en.pdf.

75. Participant 2.

76. See note 5.

77. Participant 5.

78. Participant 2. The last participant was a non-response.

79. Participant 5.

80. Participant 1.

81. Interview 2.

82. Participants 4; 1; 2.

83. Participants 1; 2

84. Participants 1; 2

85. Participants 4;1;2.

86. Participant 1; 2.

87. Participant 1; 2.

88. Participant 4.

89. Interview 5.

90. Interview 2.

91. Interview 5.

92. Interview 4.

93. Ibid.

94. Ibid.

95. Interview 2.

96. See Mac Flynn, ‘Austerity in Northern Ireland. Where Are We and Where Are We Going?’, NERI (Nevin Economic Research Institute) May 06, 2015 at https://www.nerinstitute.net/blog/2015/05/06/austerity-in-northern-ireland-where-are-we-and-whe/; Preston, ‘Record Numbers Relying on Food Banks Across Northern Ireland’, Belfast Telegraph, April 15 2016 at https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/record-numbers-relying-on-food-banks-across-northern-ireland-34628832.html; Advice NI, Social Policy Report, Turning the Tide The Growth of Food Banks in Northern Ireland, December 2013, Belfast: Advice Northern Ireland at https://www.adviceni.net/sites/default/files/publications/Growth_of_Foodbanks_in_NI.pdf.

97. NIRWN (Northern Ireland Rural Women’s Network) RURAL VOICES – Action Research and Policy Priorities for Rural Women, March 2018, 5; 8–9, 25.

98. 4/7 participants.

99. Participant 7.

100. Participant 1.

101. Participant 3.

102. Unfortunately, it was not possible to follow up on what the respondent meant by ‘real’ human rights.

103. See also Focus Group comments: ‘But it’s not a real peace’; ‘just even the notion that you’ve got peace when you have got the Deputy First Minister as an unrepentant terrorist and murderer. I mean, how can that be part of the peace.’

104. Without human security it is questionable as to whether sustainable peace can be achieved. See Cahill-Ripley, ‘Reclaiming’.

105. Participant 3; 4; 2; 5; 6.

106. Participant 1; 4; 2; 6; 3.

107. Participant 2.

108. Participant 7.

109. Participant 5.

110. Focus Group: ‘The human rights, all their resources … is communist ethos … everybody’s equal, everybody’s the same. You know, everybody will live off the State.’

111. Focus Group.

112. Interview 5.

113. Ibid.

114. Ibid.

115. For further discussion see Section 6.

116. Interview 2.

117. Interview 5.

118. Interview 2.

119. Ibid.

120. Focus Group: ‘You’re not to trust them in such a way that they can deliver what is your right.’

121. Interview 2.

122. Beirne and Knox, ‘Reconciliation and Human Rights in Northern Ireland: A False Dichotomy?’, Journal of Human Rights Practice 1 (2014): 26 at 27.

123. Felner, ‘Human Rights Leaders in Conflict Situations: A Case Study of the Politics of “Moral Entrepreneurs”,’ Journal of Human Rights Practice 1 (2012): 57 at 59–60.

124. Focus Group.

125. Interview 2; 4.

126. Interview 4.

127. Interview 2.

128. Interview 5.

129. Interview 5. They also noted that the nearest CAP centre was an hour away. Consequently, this meant it was inaccessible for those who had no money and/or transport.

130. Levitsky, Caring for Our Own – Why There Is No Political Demand for New American Social Welfare Rights (Oxford: OUP, 2014).

131. Interview 2.

132. Interview 4.

133. Engle Merry, ‘Transnational’, 39.

134. Ibid at 38.

135. Ibid at 44.

136. Ibid.

137. Ibid at 39.

138. Ibid at 42.

139. Ibid at 40.

140. Ibid at 99.

141. Beirne and Knox, ‘Reconciliation’, 36, footnote 4.

142. See Participation and the Practice of Rights, https://www.pprproject.org/participation-and-the-practice-of-rights.

143. Smith, McWilliams, and Yarnell, Political Capacity, Interview with Emma Little, Special Adviser to First Minister (DUP), 44; See also Beirne and Knox, ‘Reconciliation’, 4.

144. Snow quoted in Engle Merry, ‘Transnational’, 41.

145. Ibid.

146. Ferree in Engle Merry, ‘Transnational’, 41.

147. Engle Merry, ‘Transnational’, 44.

148. United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training General Assembly A/RES/66/137, 16 February 2012, Art 7(1).

149. Human Rights Council, ‘Panel Discussion on the Implementation of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training: Good Practices and Challenges’, Summary report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, A/HRC/35/6, 27 March 2017, para.29. For example of the South African Human Rights Commission are developing a nationwide policy framework for embedding human rights education within the curriculum to ‘promote understanding, respect, participation and inclusion with the aim of overcome conflict, tackle inequality and promoting just and cohesive society’. OHCHR, News and Events, ‘Human rights education key to overcoming conflict and inequality’, 26 Dec 2017, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/HumanRightsEducationKey.aspx.

150. Interview 2; 4.

151. Interview 4.

152. Brysk, Speaking Rights, 35.

153. Interview 5.

154. SEAP Advocacy at http://www.seap.org.uk/.

155. Engle Merry, ‘Transnational’, 42.

156. Ibid, 41.

157. Brysk, Speaking Rights, 55.

158. Ibid.

159. Engle Merry, ‘Transnational’, 48.

160. See Byrsk, Speaking Rights, 39.

161. Participant 5.

162. Interview 2.

163. Bell and Cemlyn, ‘Developing Public Support for Human Rights in the United Kingdom: Reasserting the Importance of Socio-Economic Rights’, The International Journal of Human Rights 7–8 (2014): 822 at 836.

164. Interview 5.

165. Especially the ‘new’ non-denominational churches as not constrained by historical links with unionist/nationalist communities.

166. Interview 5.

167. Ibid.

168. Three participants were interested in learning more about ESR through written materials and two were interested in participating in a free training seminar. 2 participants did not respond and 1 was not interested in further engagement.

169. Interview 4.

170. Ibid.

171. Brysk, Speaking Rights.