Authorities in Northern Ireland are urged to balance the right to peaceful assembly for both Protestant loyal order marchers and counter-protestors, while ensuring residents are protected from sectarian harassment. Any restrictions imposed on these assemblies must be lawful, necessary, and proportionate. With further court proceedings scheduled for Monday, a transparent and rights-based approach is essential to prevent further escalation of the dispute.
The controversy over the Orange Order parade along Garvaghy Road in Portadown has re-emerged since the Parades Commission authorized a limited parade along the route for the first time in 28 years. Last week’s unexpected decision was delivered only 42 hours before the parade. A High Court injunction to delay the parade was successful but was overturned by the Court of Appeal in the early hours of the morning. A few hours later, the parade could not proceed as police rightly decided it would be disproportionate to use force to remove a crowd of 1,000 or more counter-protestors from the road.
In the 1990s, the summer Drumcree parading dispute repeatedly threatened to collapse the peace process. Soldiers and police forcibly removed protestors to facilitate the parade in 1996 and 1997. Following the establishment of the Parades Commission, and the Drumcree-linked murder of three Catholic children by loyalist paramilitaries in 1998, the parade has been re-routed down a parallel road for 28 years.
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) stress that authorities have a duty to balance competing rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, including freedom of assembly and the rights of others. In this context, there have long been recommendations for the ‘right to freedom from sectarian harassment’ affirmed within the Good Friday Agreement to be expressly incorporated into the parading decisions framework.
“Freedom of assembly is a fundamental right for both those who parade and counter-protestors. Where necessary in a democratic society, it can be proportionately restricted to protect the rights of others,” said Daniel Holder, Vice-President of FIDH and Director of CAJ. “The Parades Commission decision did not properly consider that the Drumcree parade was inevitably going to require balancing two competing rights of assembly, nor is there consideration of the risks of sectarian intimidation. Transparency and a human rights-based approach across all relevant issues are essential for future decisions.”
FIDH and CAJ welcome that to date all assemblies have been peaceful and that there has been no use of force by the police. They also raise concerns at the continued discourse of “illegality” being applied to counter-protestors. A notification for 5,000 counter-protestors was submitted before the parade and only stood down in light of the original High Court injunction. They also draw attention to ECHR-case law which has held that in certain circumstances, rights to hold spontaneous peaceful protests in immediate response to events where the protest would be pointless if delayed may override notification requirements. As the courts consider the case on Monday, the organizations stress that the protection of human rights must remain at the centre of any resolution to the Drumcree dispute.
This report was produced by the HuMedia newsroom.
