Dr. Melanie Hoewer:

Let me add to what Ms Fitzmaurice outlined so precisely. I thank the Chairman for this inspiring and very engaged discussion on these important issues. As an academic I am glad to be here.

I appreciate the remarks of Ms McManus and Ms Fitzmaurice on the national action plan, but let me clarify. The British Government has repeatedly stated that the conflicts to be dealt with under UNSCR 1325 have to meet the threshold of being identified as a conflict in the Geneva Convention. This is not accurate. The Secretary General has issued a statement that UNSCR 1325 does not seek to make any legal determination as to whether situations referred to in the Secretary General's report are or are not conflicts within the context of the Geneva Convention. We know there has been some contention in the Northern Ireland Executive about that issue. I very much welcome that we focus on the principles of UNSCR 1325.

Some of the Deputies have asked what can they do to support the implementation of those principles in Northern Ireland. The All-Party Group on UNSCR 1325: Women, Peace and Security, which is currently led by Paula Bradley, has been mentioned repeatedly. This all-party group has an idea of what they are supposed to do but not a real role. I would encourage taking good practice examples such as we have seen in Colombia, where they have no national action plan either but they have implemented or are in the process of implementing the principles from the bottom up. They have local plans. I agree with Deputy Feighan that one needs a reporting or monitoring mechanism; otherwise, one does not know what is happening. Everybody can talk about principles, but one does not know what is actually happening. The members might talk to their colleagues about giving a leadership role to the all-party group and engaging them more. The members of the all-party group do not have much motivation to engage with the group because they do not have that many tasks, except to organise very important hearings. Giving them a greater role would bring the process forward from a local level. That is a very important point.

There has been engagement in community at the local level but we need to take a multilevel approach to how we look at conflict resolution in Northern Ireland. The emphasis is on power sharing at the national and regional levels in the Parliament, but there is also a community dimension, which is mentioned in the Good Friday Agreement, and an individual dimension, which is also mentioned in the Good Friday Agreement but is not being taken into account in the same way. I think the all-party group could do a good job of taking on leadership and looking at those different dimensions and the different issues within the five pillars.

I thank members for their attention. Their interest is very encouraging and I hope we can move the process forward.