A flag for Northern Ireland which commands the support of all sections of the community is proposed by the Alliance party.
Launching its community relations paper, the cross-community party's leader Mr David Ford criticised the handling of last month's 2001 census figures, and urged the British government to stop encouraging people in the province to label themselves as Catholic or Protestant.
"The healing of our communal divisions must be the greatest priority for our political institutions.
"Any proper community relations strategy must be extensive and must be radical. There is no point tinkering around the edges; it must challenge how we live, work and play as a community," Mr Ford said.
Sectarianism is "deeply ingrained throughout society", he said adding that the public are "taught to see themselves as part of an exclusive community and to be suspicious of others from an early age".
The Alliance document, entitled 'Building A United Community', calls for:
- Greater use to be made of the European Flag
- The appointment of an integration monitor
- A target of 10 per cent of all children educated in integrated schools by 2010
- The promotion and maintenance of mixed housing as an explicit objective of the Housing Executive, with a more pro-active police policy of intervening when paramilitary flags and other emblems are being erected on estates
- An end to the construction of "peace walls", keeping people apart as a solution to tensions in sectarian flashpoint areas
- The extension of the Football Offences Act (1991) and other relevant legislation in Britain to deal with racist and sectarian chanting at football grounds
- The drafting of a Bill of Rights by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, as required under the Belfast Agreement, and a Charter of Freedom from Sectarianism
- A less sectarian voting system within the Assembly based on a straightforward weighted majority, freeing MLAs of the obligation to declare themselves as unionist, nationalist or other
- The active encouragement by Government of de-segregation and communal integration and the development of appropriate policies
- The promotion of citizenship and a culture of lawfulness in schools
PA