Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland has made a renewed call for
the abolition of the Parades Commission - "an unelected,
undemocratic quango totally biased against the loyal orders
and flawed in its judgement".
Grand Master Robert Saulters told the Northern Ireland Select
Committee at Westminster that the Parades Commission had fallen
into the trap of accepting and promoting the concept of sectarian
ghettos in the Province.
Bro. Saulters was joined by three senior Grand Orange Lodge
of Ireland colleagues in making a detailed submission on parades
to the committee, which consists of M.P.'s from various parties
at Westminster.
They argued that the Parades Commission, as presently constituted,
was unable to deal with the parading issues and should be
wound up.
Bro. Saulters said they did not believe that the roads and
public places in Northern Ireland were owned by loyalists
or nationalists, nor should be.
"Yet the Parades Commission has allowed this to develop
and had given weight to those who desire apartheid and who
are not prepared to tolerate the manifestation of another
faith or culture."
Bro. Saulters stressed the importance of parades to the Orange
Order and the wider Protestant and Unionist community.
"Parades have for centuries provided a medium for our
community to publicly express its faith and culture. Other
people use different mediums to do the same thing. It is important
that all legitimate expressions of faith and culture should
be respected and no one particular expression is less valuable
than another," he said.
"The record of the Parades Commission clearly shows
it has been inconsistent in its determinations, has issued
contradictory statements, displayed an absence of understanding
of the situation on the ground, and, most seriously, bowed
to the threat of violence.
"Inevitably, the number of so-called contentious parades
has grown as the Parades Commission has endorsed the view
that expressions of our faith and culture through the medium
of parades are somehow illegitimate. Community relations have
deteriorated dramatically and there is now a situation where,
in areas like Portadown, relations are at a lower ebb now
than during the worst years of the Troubles."
Bro. Saulters was joined in the Westminster discussions by
the Order's Grand Secretary Bro. Denis Watson, Executive Officer
Bro. George Patton and Co. Armagh Chaplain Bro. the Rev. William
Bingham.
The meeting, chaired by Select Committee chairman and former
Norther Ireland Secretary of State Sir Peter Brooke, was described
by Denis Watson as a very worthwhile and useful exercise.
The Grand Lodge Officers said the Parades Commission was
an unelected quango allegedly accountable to no one for the
decisions it makes.
"We are deeply disappointed that the creation of another
quango is considered in any way an adequate or even a realistic
answer to the problems facing our society.
"The apparatus the Commission operates within, the Public
Procession (N.I.) Order, is legislation which in our opinion
fundametally undermines basic human rights of freedom of assembly
and freedom of movement. As an organisation committed to civil
and religious liberty for all it would be hypocritical of
us to support the Commission.
"The work of the Commission legitimises the concept
of apartheid. By accepting the view that the public highway
cannot be traversed by certain groups because people of another
tradition may live on or near part of the route is to give
credibility to an apartheid system based on cultural, racial
or religious grounds.
"The Orange Institution in South Africa could not operate
in the apartheid era because we could not accept the restrictions
it imposed. We cannot accept apartheid within Northern Ireland.
"The Commission is incapable of abiding by its own procedural
rules in that it has not announced the determinations as promised.
"The Commission and the legislation provides for a law
breakers charter."
The Grand Orange Lodge delegation submitted that in every
democratic society the state had a responsibility to protect
certain fundamental rights including, freedom of religious
belief, free speech, freedom of assembly, the right of free
association, the right to live in peace and the right of cultural
expression.
"In many countries these rights are enshrined in either
the constitution of the country or a Bill of Rights. The right
of free association and right of assembly underpin the right
to parade.
"Parades are very much part of the Orange tradition
and heritage as over 200 years ago the founding fathers decided
that parades were an appropriate medium to witness for their
faith and to celebrate their cultural heritage.
"However, the concept of parades by the community that
gave birth to the Orange Institution was well established
long before the first Orange Order parade in 1796. It is a
matter of historical record that parades were a feature of
the community for many years prior to the formation of the
Orange Institution."
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