Our Rights and Responsibilities chapter was put together some years ago with the very best of intentions, and it has been updated to a limited extent at various conferences. However, much of the text is now outdated and wholesale revision is needed.
A working group of Green Party Regional Council was asked to get this work underway, and we recruited some party members who committed to being part of the Core Team that will take responsibility for drafting the new text and consulting others about it. They successfully brought an enabling Motion to Autumn Conference 2021 and are now working in earnest to update our party’s policy. You can see, and join, our Green Space on the members’ website at Rights & Responsibilities Policy Work Group – Green Party Members Website
We are keen to expand the Core Team, especially to include Young Greens and people who identify as LGBTQIA+, as the members who have these characteristics, although they were initially active, are not currently involved in the Core Team’s work for different reasons. There will also be a wider ‘reference group’ who will be consulted on the text – this will include representatives of all the inclusion/liberation groups in the party and other interested individuals; consultation will also take place with external campaigning groups and other relevant organisations.
If you have a strong commitment to all aspects of equality, and a willingness to work cooperatively with others who may have different views and would like to join the Core Team, then we want to hear from you. If you have previous experience of writing policy (for the Green Party or another organisation) that would be great, but a positive and collegial attitude is more important. We have an Acting Convener for the Policy Working Group (and the Core Team) who intends to remain involved, but they would like to hand on the responsibility for driving this work forward. So if you are potentially interested in becoming our Convenor, or Co-Convenor to share the load with someone else, then do flag this up in your response.
Please send either a 250 word statement, or a 2-minute video or audio file of you reading your statement, to rightsandresponsibilities2020@outlook.com. Your statement should tell us why you are the right person to get involved in the Core Team, and explain your particular areas of interest and/or expertise in the field of Equality work. We look forward to hearing from you, and welcoming a few new members to our Core Team.