Equality and Human Rights.

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As a social democratic party, equality, human rights and respect for different minority communities within Northern Ireland has always been vitally important to us in pursuit of social justice. Human rights provide vital protections for everyone in Northern Ireland. SDLP Youth believes it is the responsibility of all of us to respect the rights of others and we will continue to campaign for the adoption of a Northern Ireland Bill of Rights to protect, strengthen and uphold the social, cultural and economic rights we currently enjoy.

SDLP Youth calls for equality and protection for all oppressed members of our society, such as migrants, women, persons with disabilities, members of our Travelling community and members of the LGBTI+ community.  The SDLP & SDLP Youth are both strong and proud supporters of LGBTI+ rights.

The recent legislation that saw Marriage Equality brought to Northern Ireland, through the amendment from Conor McGinn MP, was a watershed moment for Northern Ireland and we were very proud to be apart of the fight for Marriage Equality. We recognise that, although Marriage Equality has been achieved, there is much progress still to make to ensure we achieve full and meaningful equality for our LGBTI+ community and for all oppressed members of our society.

Our policies on social justice are contained both on this policy page and our Workers’ Rights & Social Security policy page.

Our Human Rights Policies. 

SDLP Youth is campaigning for:

  • human rights and equality provisions for all citizens in the North, especially in light of the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union.

  • the absolute social, economic and political emancipation of all citizens.

  • entitlement for all citizens to progress in their life without hindrance irrespective of their age, perceived social class, gender identity, mental or physical disabilities.

  • the ensurance that all citizens have the right to make a better life for themselves and the people around them without discrimination of inherited privilege.

  • the principle of equal pay for equal work, ending the gender pay gap and levelling out the current flaws in the tiered minimum wage system.

  • a proactive welfare system in its response to unemployment; providing better education and skills training.

  • a guaranteed right to access to meaningful education and training, ensuring that no-one is left without relevant qualifications.

  • Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.

Our LGBTI+ Policies.

SDLP Youth is campaigning for:

  • gender specification on government forms to be prohibited and replaced with open ended questions that allow people to state their own identification.

  • the legal requirement for gender neutral bathrooms in public facilities.

  • gender Identity to be self-determined, and not proscribed by doctors or the State.

  • a robust opposition to any proposal to deny basic goods and services to people on account of their sexual orientation.

  • further relaxation of the MSM blood ban to continue towards a full science-based fair and equal approach and access to blood donation.

  • the banning of conversion therapy, which has been proven to not only be ineffectual but also detrimental to the mental health of those who undertake it.

  • members of the LGBT+ community to have full right to adopt and raise children so that all children may be raised in a loving and caring family home.

  • effective actions to be taken to tackling the increase in reported homophobic and transphobic hate crime, and offer support to victims of hate crime.

  • informed consent, whereby intersex infants should not be forced to conform to a gender before they have reached an age of legal maturity where they are capable of consenting to any alteration of their genitalia with self-awareness and knowledge of the sex reassignment procedures. 

Our Reproductive Rights Policies.

SDLP Youth is campaigning for:

  • the Minister for Health to, as a matter of urgency, implement abortion care recommendations from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and uphold and implement its legal obligations by commissioning Trust-wide early medical abortion services.

Our Refugee Policies.

SDLP Youth is campaigning for:

  • refugees to be fully welcomed into Northern Ireland and for xenophobic rhetoric against migrants to be condemned.

  • support for Syrian refugee families resettled in the North of Ireland, condemning the poor housing provided to the families, and campaigning for for action to be taken by the Housing Executive and the Department for Committees to tackle the intolerable housing conditions, and for the PSNI to work with the families to tackle racism and xenophobia.

  • an increased level of financial support to asylum seekers, and supports reviewing restrictions imposed on asylum seekers which prevent working as claims are processed. 

Our Disability Policies.

SDLP Youth is campaigning for:

  • greater action and consistency from the Northern Ireland Executive and the UK Government in respect to the concluding observations of the United Nations Committee on the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities following the State Examination of the UK’s compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in August 2017.

  • recognition of the valuable contribution that those living with disabilities make to our society.

Our Gender Equality Policies.

SDLP Youth is campaigning for:

  • an end to the gender pay gap.

  • the implementation of gender quotas and all-women shortlists in the selection of electoral candidates.

  • a target to be set within the SDLP that 40% of our candidates in all elections will be women and 15% to be young people.