Belfast Agreement: Ethnicity

Lord Laird
asked Her Majesty's Government:

How they define “ethnicity” as used in the Belfast agreement of April 1998 in paragraph 1, point 6 of the section under “Rights, safeguards and equality of opportunity”. [HL2945]

Lord Rooker
The Belfast (Good Friday) agreement was given effect in UK domestic law primarily by the Northern Ireland Act 1998. Section 75(5) of the Northern Ireland Act defines “racial group” as having the same meaning as in the Race Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1997. According to that order, responsibility for which is now a matter for the Northern Ireland Assembly, “racial group” means a group of persons defined by reference to colour, race, nationality or ethnic or national origins, and references to a person's racial group refer to any racial group into which he falls.