Allister takes 50:50 campaign to Europe
16 December 2005
This week, in pursuit of the DUP's campaign against 50:50 recruitment to the PSNI, MEP Jim Allister delivered to Commissioner Spidla, who has responsibility for employment and related human rights issues, a dossier setting out the case as to why the Commission should refuse to extend the UK's derogation from Directive 2000/78/EC, which permits the current discrimination against Protestants who apply to join the police.
Mr Allister also took the opportunity of a debate in
"Today, again, we debate human rights across the world and point up the failures of others in this regard.
I want however to focus this debate on a flagrant breach of human rights perpetuated within this European Union and specifically within the
In consequence, hundreds of exceptionally qualified young Protestants have been refused admission to the Police, not on merit, but because there is not a matching quantity of applicants from the Catholic community. So before this House and the EU parades its human rights credentials, let it set about righting this wrong, implementing the Directive banning religious discrimination in employment in its entirety and ending this outrageous discrimination against the majority community in my country."
A copy of the dossier submitted is attached. It reviews the multiple breaches of international Conventions which are involved in 50:50 recruitment, explains, with reference to individual case studies, the human impact of the discrimination, exposes its scale and the rigged scoring system which is used to perfect this discrimination.
