Professor Fidelma Ashe:

I thank the committee for inviting me. It is great to be here. My comments are based on published work that examines the gender dimensions of the Good Friday Agreement, GFA, as well as work I have been doing through the past four years which engages with the provisions for a unity referendum in the agreement. I worked with colleagues, namely, Eilish Rooney and Joanna McMinn, on all three projects. Thanks to Higher Education Authority, HEA, funding, I have recently been able to work with Nuala Finnegan and colleagues at University College Cork. In total, the three projects facilitated the inclusion of a diverse range of women in discussions around that provision for a border poll. Based on the findings, my view, which is not necessarily the view of the entire team but they would probably agree with me if they were here, is that based on the findings, a number of conclusions can be drawn.

Any border poll will be conducted in a context of uneven power relationships. Some groups will have more influence and more decision-making power in the process than others. I am not just thinking of women, although they will comprise one of those other groups. Women are key stakeholders in constitutional discussions and change. We know from international studies that women's involvement increases legitimacy and good decision-making around constitutional change. However, if care is not taken, gender issues and women could be easily pushed to the periphery as other issues are given much more priority in any debates. The participants in the research, the women who were involved, identified multiple and significant barriers to participation.

A citizens' assembly is a very useful tool but it must be supplemented by wider and deeper forms of participation. The mechanism of a citizens' assembly is insufficient to allow numerous groups of women to participate. Our work has illustrated that participatory forums need to be shaped around the participants and also that facilitators need to reach into communities and draw people into the participatory spaces. Our model has been much more rigorous in reaching out to people, ensuring they have no fears or anxiety about participation and assuring them that these are respectful and safe spaces for them to discuss any issues they want. That kind of model of participation will increase the legitimacy of any potential process of constitutional change. I am sorry to be the one to tell the committee this but it is going to require extensive funding from the Government to be successful. We have some international models that are very interesting and were quite successful. The models are there. Regardless of their position on the national question, all of the women who participated in our research believed strongly it was important to make Northern Ireland work. Across the range of women, the most important issues for now and for any potential future include socioeconomic issues, human rights and equality. Those were the most pressing issues for the women who participated in our research.

The more aggressive the debates, the more off-putting discussions of constitutional change would be for women. Aggressive debate will also drive women's insecurity and could increase their fears of participation. We found that women from a range of social groups, and we had a broad spread, felt they had a lot to contribute to discussions on constitutional change but also felt that their participation and their voices would not be listened to by policymakers. Participants pointed to the importance of civic forums, meaningful consultation, representation, political champions for women and open, safe and inclusive forums for dialogue where women would not just be listened to but heard and, most important, responded to, and that there would be some kind of feedback or recognition that they had been listened to.

I will summarise a few of the conclusions of the research. Governments have a responsibility under international law to ensure that women can participate in peacebuilding processes and in public and political debates. It is very important that governments work to reduce the barriers to women's participation and ensure that women's participation is free from threat. Women have a right to clear, accessible and non-ideological information which they identify as an important participatory resource. That was underlined to us several times across a range of women. In respect of any future form of constitutional change, it is my view that socioeconomic plans need to be clearly outlined before any referendum. If there are information vacuums, they are prone to be filled with misinformation.

I have covered the main findings of the research so perhaps committee members would like to ask questions.