Working together to advance equality in Northern Ireland

The Equality Coalition was formed in 1996 by human rights and equality organisations working together to promote equality and human rights in Northern Ireland. The Coalition was formed to bring together organisations from across the sector to advocate for stronger legal protections, challenge inequality and ensure that equality and human rights remained central to any peace process. The Coalition’s core aims and objectives are to ensure our public sector equality duty, Section 75, is put into practice, to raise the public profile of the equality agenda in Northern Ireland, to facilitate information sharing and to engage in strategic planning that will effect change for critical equality issues.

The Good Friday Agreement (also known as the Belfast Agreement) was signed on 10 April 1998 following multi-party negotiations involving the UK and Irish Governments and Northern Ireland’s political parties. It was endorsed by referendum in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in May 1998. The Agreement contains a range of rights-based commitments, including provisions for a Northern Ireland Bill of Rights, citizenship rights, justice reform and the right to self-determination, amongst others. One of the key commitments made by the UK Government as part of the Agreement was to incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into domestic law in Northern Ireland. Almost 30 years after the Agreement was signed, many commitments remain outstanding. We work to ensure these unfulfilled commitments are delivered and not overlooked.

The Human Rights Act 1998 came fully into force in 2000, incorporating the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights into UK domestic law. This meant that people in Northern Ireland could rely on and enforce their Convention rights in UK courts, without having to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The Act also strengthened the role of courts in protecting human rights and provided an important way for people to challenge laws and actions that are incompatible with their rights.

This Agreement was between the Irish Government,  the UK Government and the main Northern Ireland political parties to restore power-sharing devolved government after 5 years of direct rule. The Agreement included commitments on language and equality. The UK Government committed to introducing an Irish language act, and the Agreement placed statutory duties upon the NI Executive to adopt an Irish Language Strategy and an Ulster Scots Strategy, as well as an Anti-Poverty Strategy based on objective need. Many of these commitments remain outstanding.

In the 2016 Brexit referendum, the UK voted to leave the European Union, although Northern Ireland voted to remain. The UK formally left the EU in 2020. Brexit created significant potential risks to equality and human rights protections in Northern Ireland. The Equality Coalition played an active role in campaigning to prevent the regression of rights and welcomed the commitments contained in the Withdrawal Agreement and the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, now the Windsor Framework. Our work now focuses on ensuring full implementation of the Article 2 non-diminution guarantee, which protects against regression in equality and human rights standards.

The New Decade, New Approach (NDNA) Agreement restored Northern Ireland’s power-sharing institutions after a three-year hiatus and set out a range of commitments on equality, human rights and social inclusion. It made the development and implementation of an Anti-Poverty Strategy a priority for the restored Executive and provided for a number of other strategies, including those on racial equality, disability, gender, sexual orientation, children and young people, child poverty and active ageing. The NDNA also included three draft bills, one an Irish language act, the other covering Ulster Scots and Ulster Britishness, and the third covering an Office of Identity and Cultural Expression. Many of NDNA’s commitments remain outstanding.