THE right to march is not absolute and must take a secondary position to the rights of objecting communities, Sinn Fein states in its submission to the North Commission on parades which will be presented today.
The party will argue that the right of a community to refuse permission to a parade which it finds objectionable must be paramount.
At a press conference yesterday, Sinn Fein said it was prepared to co-operate with the North Commission but believed that the British government lacked the political will to reroute loyalist parades away from nationalist areas.
During the summer, the party said, small nationalist communities had been placed under siege by the British Army, RUC, Orange Order and loyalist paramilitaries, and that this must not be allowed to happen again.
The chairwoman of Belfast Sinn Fein, Ms Martina McElkenny, said that the party did not believe new laws or powers were necessary or desirable to deal with the issue.
She accused the British government of abdicating its responsibility on the issue and said that it used existing public order laws when dealing with republican parades, yet somehow found the same legislation inadequate for dealing with Orange marches.
"Sinn Fein does not seek confrontation on the parades question," Ms McElkenny said. "We seek agreement and we tried throughout the summer to secure agreement locally. We will continue to do so, irrespective of the Commission's findings.
"We respect the right of anyone who wants to march to do so because it is a democratic right. We believe in freedom of assembly and of political expression. However, this right is not absolute. lt is a right which carries responsibilities." She claimed that unionist leaders and the Orange Order had misused the right to march during the summer.
The party's submission states that the right to march does not, extend to "threatening the safety and security" of residents. Parade organisers have a duty not to cause offence to communities. Marches should not be organised through districts where residents: find them offensive, the submission states. When local communities objected to parades and appoint representatives, the organisers have a duty to negotiate with these people.
Sinn Fein said it did not organise marches through loyalist areas. Tradition alone could not be used as the main criterion for the right to march because there had often been demographic changes over the years, it said.