WRDA develops a monthly Stormont and Westminster update highlighting main developments across both the Assembly and Parliament relating to women and issues within the Feminist Recovery Plan. As we approached the end of the Assembly mandate, a number of significant legislative developments relating to women managed to pass. More information on the Stormont and Westminster updates are available here and below is a summary of some of the Bills that passed:
- Safe Access Zones Bill (Public Health and Well Being Bill) – Clare Bailey PMB –
This Bill requires the Department of Health to provide safe access to healthcare facilities including buffer zones/safe access zones around reproductive healthcare facilities. Such zones would mean anti-abortion protesting and harassment that would cause distress to those accessing healthcare would be unable to occur, and it would be a criminal offence to do so. The Bill also creates obligations on the Department of Health to liaise This would enhance the ability of women and others, including the medical professionals who work within these buildings, to access healthcare services such as abortion and accessing contraception without fear of harassment and intimidation. with police services to monitor and enforce safe access zones, alongside the requirement that the Department publish annual reporting in relation to effectiveness of the usage of safe access zones.
This would enhance the ability of women and others, including the medical professionals who work within these buildings, to access healthcare services such as abortion and accessing contraception without fear of harassment and intimidation.
More information on the Bill is available here.
- Period Products (Free Provision) Bill – Pat Catney PMB –
A Bill to secure the provision throughout Northern Ireland of free period products; and for connected purposes. England, Scotland, and Wales each have varying schemes in place to provide sanitary products free of charge in schools and some other public buildings. Northern Ireland has been the only place in the United Kingdom where such products are not provided free of charge in schools. This Bill strives to place a duty on the Department of Health to ensure that period products are available free of charge on a universal basis in appropriate locations; and to create regulations which specify which public service bodies have said duty to ensure access to free period products
The FRP has highlighted the importance of good, gendered governance elsewhere globally –highlighting policies related to free period products as an example of this. Furthermore, WRDA and the Women’s Policy Group have been vocal in their support of movement towards free period products in past consultations.
More information on the Bill is available here.
- Domestic Abuse (Safe Leave) Bill – Rachel Woods PMB –
A Bill to make provision for an entitlement to 10 days paid safe leave in each year for victims of domestic abuse; and for connected purposes. The Bill makes this a day one right to be guaranteed to all employees. Safe Leave can help mitigate some of the barriers that victims/ survivors face when attempting to seek help and support. It can also help address some of the costs of domestic abuse for employers. The FRP has highlighted the good practice of similar policies elsewhere globally such as in New Zealand. The FRP supports this legislation but would like to see up to 20 days paid safe leave as a day one right which should be available to take either as a block or more flexibly.
More information on the Bill is available here.
- Preservation of Documents (Historical Institutions) Bill –
A Bill to make provision for the preservation of documents relating to certain institutions and residents of those institutions between 1922 and 1995, and to certain children of those residents. The Bill outlines the definitions of what is meant and understood by relevant documentation, relevant information, and relevant institutions. This promotes a pathway to justice for both the women and children who were abused by institutions such as the Mary Magdalene Homes by preserving information they may wish to access in the future. The keeping of historical records is also a mechanism of transitional justice to ensure non-recurrence and the potential for future truth telling projects.
The mother and baby institutions which existed in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland was an inherently gendered abuse and trauma which was reinforced by gendered stereotypes and assumptions such as fallen women. Victims and survivors, and their families deserve the truth of the institutional abuse that occurred; future generations deserve to be free from the repetition of similar gendered violence.
More information on the Bill is available here.
