Who Is A Victim?
There were some feisty exchanges this morning during the debate on the Victims and Survivors Commission Bill. DUP members crossed swords with both Basil McCrea and David Ford, who claimed the measure was "a grubby little bill with a grubby little purpose", by which he meant covering the OFMDFM's failure to agree a single Commissioner.
The UUP are promising to open up a hornet's nest next week when they propose an amendment suggesting a new definition of a victim. Currently the Executive is working with the existing definition which refers to victims and survivors as "(a) someone who is or has been physically or psychologically injured as a result of or in consequence of a conflict-related incident; (b) someone who provides a substantial amount of care on a regular basis for an individual mentioned in paragraph (a); or (c) someone who has been bereaved as a result of or in consequence of a conflict-related incident".
Basil McCrea's contributions this week suggest the UUP will try to differentiate between "combatants" and "innocent victims". Whether they will also draw a line between soldiers, police and paramilitaries we shall have to wait to see.
Martin McGuinness has already said he wants the proposed new Victims Forum to work on a definition of a victim, but as Stephen Farry pointed out today this could lead to complications - what if a new definition militated against the inclusion of some of those already selected to sit on the Forum?
I'm 
°ä´Ç³¾³¾±ð²Ô³Ù²õÌýÌý Post your comment
So we have 4 victims commissioners and a victims forum, but we still don't know what a victim is.
See that wee cloud of dust? That's common sense disappearing over the horizon.
I think it was very imagnitive to have 4 commisioners. No one person would have suited everyone. I wish once a decision has been made that the polititians would just get on with it.
It's not simple to define a victim. It's understandable that someone injured planting a bomb should not be regarded as a victim but what about their wife, mother and children?
Help and support for anyone traumatised is needed but it would be helpful if we could resist getting in each other's face, eg what events Stormont is used for.
Yeah Jane very imaginative to have 4 commisioners. Can you also imagine where the 4 60K a year salaries are coming from? The legislation in this is so sloppy I'm dissapointed that more politicians didn't oppose the passage. It has no limit on how many Commisioners there will be, there can be 1, 4 or even 40, thats the problem. Time and time again the OFMDFM does shoddy work and asked the Assembly to speed through a quick fix which only patches half the problem a problem that wouldn't exist if the Ministers knew what the hell they where doing.