Government

Conference remains deeply concerned that our health and social care system remains under-staffed and under-resourced, with privatisation of services continuing, and with wide health inequalities across society. This concern is now being exacerbated by the...

Conference, more than a decade has now passed since the Department of Health1 started a review that led to the publication of its Strategy for Maternity Care in Northern Ireland 2012-2018. That strategy helped deliver many improvements in maternity care across...

Health inequalities including unfair and avoidable differences in health and access to healthcare across the population, and between different groups within society have long been an issue. The COVID pandemic and the current cost of living crisis have exposed...

Conference applauds the women, civil society groups and trade unions who tirelessly campaigned to realise free, safe and legal abortion healthcare in Northern Ireland. Whilst trade unions welcomed the Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations which came into...

Conference is concerned at the draconian use of COVID legislation as a repressive mechanism against citizens who attempted to exercise their democratic right to protest.     The Reclaim the Streets protesters in Belfast, the Sarah Everard protests in London...

This online hate speech and abuse conference notes the high level of abuse on social media platforms. Much of that abuse is gender based. In Northern Ireland women journalists have been subjected to vile treatment. Sectarian, homophobic, and racist abuse is...

Conference notes the new legislation to protect shop workers from violence, threats and abuse introduced in Scotland in August 2021. This law created a specific offence for abusing, threatening or assaulting a retail worker. Conference also notes that the...

Congress notes with concern that Northern Ireland is now the only region of these islands without a strategy on tackling violence against women and girls. It notes further that over the last years Northern Ireland has one of the highest rates of femicide (i.e...

Conference welcomes the passing of the Justice (Sexual Offences and Trafficking Victims) Bill and specifically the provisions in relation to up-skirting and down blousing. Conference commends all those who campaigned to ensure that Northern Ireland has the...

At present it is not illegal in Northern Ireland to discriminate against older people in the provision of goods, facilities and services, whereas such discrimination is illegal in England, Scotland and Wales. The Northern Ireland Assembly have been unable to...