An influential United Nations human rights committee has questioned why an overwhelming majority of people on the North Belfast housing waiting list are Catholic.

The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights consists of 18 experts who scrutinise the performance of governments over the world in their protection of human rights.

At a high-profile meeting in the UN headquarters in Geneva yesterday (Wednesday),  committee members were told that in the year 2000, 80 per cent of people in housing stress and on the waiting list in North Belfast were Catholic or nationalist.  They were further told that in 2008, after £133 million of money from the North Belfast Housing Strategy was pumped in to help fix the problem, the figure fell by just seven per cent to 73 per cent.

Committee member Ariranga Pillay, a former Chief Justice of Mauritius, questioned why the drop in numbers had been so low and asked the British government why their actions had been “ineffective” and what they are prepared to do to put things right. 

When the committee publishes its final report next month it will be handed over to the British government who will need to comply with their recommendations under international law.

A group of North Belfast residents were at the meeting along with workers from local group the Participation and the Practice of Rights (PPR) project. The delegation was there to highlight the British government's failure to protect some of the most vulnerable people in the North.

Frank McMillan from PPR said local people should take hope from the fact that North Belfast housing inequality is now on a world stage.

“I am reassured that the international process is working for us and that the UN is accessible for local people. We will be waiting now for the committee's conclusions to see what they recommend the government do to fix the situation,” he said.

Sinn Féin MLA Carál Ní Chuilín welcomed the UN involvement.

“The UN's criticism of inequalities in housing in North Belfast is international recognition of a problem which we have been campaigning on with residents for years,” said Carál Ní Chuilín.

“This is a good result for the efforts of the PPR and its work with residents in the North of the city and I commend them for their determination in pursuing this issue at home and abroad.

“Housing is a basic human right and the generations of discrimination and inequalities in the provision and maintenance of housing must be ended immediately.”