A Shared Future

A Shared Future is one of the most fundamentally important consultations to be held in Northern Ireland. It poses questions about whether people who live in Northern Ireland can share this small space or whether it is acceptable to imagine that communities can live in total isolation from each other, in some kind of ‘benign apartheid’.

A briefing paper has been prepared by NICVA to help voluntary and community organisations consider their responses to the consultation.

NICVA briefing paper (112Kb) NICVA briefing paper

Visit www.asharedfutureni.gov.uk to read A Shared Future

Consultation date

A NICVA consultation on A Shared Future will take place on 26 June from 9.30am- 1.00pm. To register email Cathy Breslin .

It is expected that the Northern Ireland Office will extend the consultation time beyond the original 31 July closing date.

A note on the consultation’s history

Following a commitment in the Programme for Government to review community relations and put in place a cross-departmental strategy by 2002, Dr Jeremy Harbison led a team which was tasked with reviewing community relations policy in Northern Ireland during 2001.

Dr Harbison met with and heard from many organisations, institutions and individuals across Northern Ireland, including many from the voluntary and community sector.

Despite presenting his report to the Northern Ireland Executive in January 2002, nothing emerged from the Executive in the shape of a consultation on the way forward.

Finally, in January 2003, NIO Minister Des Browne launched the consultation document A Shared Future which asks some fundamental questions about a sharedway forward for the people of Northern Ireland