Human Rights Day protests against victims’ exclusion

Socially distanced rallies took place at the Diamond, Rossville Street, Creggan, Shantallow, Ballymagroarty and Top of the Hill, to coincide with international human rights day.

Simultaneous demonstrations were held in Belfast, Lurgan, Lisnaskea and at other locations in order to highlight what campaigners are calling the ‘discriminatory’ nature of the scheme.

Coiste na n-Iarchimí, the republican ex-prisoners’ association, organised the day of action against the scheme which it says will exclude many republicans and create a hierarchy of victims. Members of Sinn Féin also took part in the demonstrations.

Mickey Kinsella, coordinator with the Tar Abhaile ex-prisoners group in Derry, explained: “We see it as discriminatory. It was forced on the Stormont Executive by the British Government.

“It is bent towards compensating British Crown Forces rather than others who were injured in the conflict. We see it as an attempt by the British Government to rewrite the conflict,” he claimed.

Over the past number of months several people locally have spoken out in the pages of this newspaper against the disqualification of many former victims from the scheme due to terms of imprisonment served as a result of their involvement in the conflict.

Mr. Kinsella said: “We had people out today who were injured, who lost loved ones and who were brutalised in the H-Blocks and Armagh. We want the British Government to take it away and allow the Executive to finally come to an agreement where all people who were aggrieved or injured in the conflict are able to avail of the pensionscheme.”

The chain of protests yesterday coincided with the global celebration of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

“Today is world Human Rights Day. We took the opportunity to highlight the infringement and total disregard for human rights in Ireland. It’s not just in the Six Counties. People who were injured in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, the family of Martin Doherty, who was shot dead in Dublin in 1994, and the family of Eddie Fullerton, who was murdered in Buncrana in 1991 - they are not able to access this pension scheme,” said Mr. Kinsella.

Under the Victims’ Payments Regulations 2020 it is stipulated that a person is not entitled to victims’ payments if their injuries were caused by an incident which led to a conviction. The legislation also allows the British Secretary of State to rule against payments when ‘exceptional circumstances makes entitlement to victims’ payments inappropriate’.