Public Policy Interventions: Protecting Economic, Social and Workers’ Rights
The Equality Coalition works strategically to ensure that economic and social policy in Northern Ireland promotes equality, protects workers, and safeguards marginalised communities. Our interventions combine legal expertise, research, political engagement and capacity-building across civil society.
Legal Interventions Subgroup
We run a Legal Intervention Subgroup, which serves as a dedicated legal hub providing strategic guidance and expertise to member organisations.
The subgroup holds hybrid meetings on a bimonthly basis and supports coordinated interventions on a range of issues.
We also deliver targeted training through the subgroup. Some of our past training sessions have focused on:
● Northern Ireland Assembly Code of Conduct and the Ministerial Code
● Drafting effective complaints about public bodies
● Section 75 compliance and enforcement
Enforcing Section 75 Equality Duties
One of our key priorities is to ensure effective application of Section 75 (S75) public sector equality duties. We advocate for robust compliance with S75 duties in all relevant policy decisions.
We also regularly provide our members with training in this area and assist them with S75 interventions when needed – we are always happy to help! Additionally, we have developed a range of resources to assist our members with their Section 75 interventions. (this will be hyperlinked).
Our interventions have included:
● Securing agreement from the Department of Finance to implement Coalition-proposed changes to its Equality Scheme.
● Supporting member organisations in Section 75-based advocacy
● Intervening in relation to access to the breast cancer drug ribociclib
Visit our Section 75 page for further information on what this duty is and how it works.
Evidence-Based Research and Policy Development
We commission and disseminate research to strengthen the evidence base for equality enforcement and workforce protection. We also respond to government consultations when appropriate and encourage our members to do so, disseminating members’ responses so that we can lean on each other’s expertise.
Here are some of our reports and submissions:
● ‘Screened Out Without Mitigation’ Returning Equality in Northern Ireland to the Margins
● Equal to the Task? Investigative powers and effective enforcement of the ‘Section 75’ equality duty – an Equality Coalition Research Report
● Equality Coalition Effective Consultation Guidance
Equality Coalition EQIA on Welfare Reform
Political Engagement and Advocacy
We maintain structured engagement with political leaders to ensure our priorities remain central to decision-making. We use our research and reports to ensure that our interventions are both timely and informed.
We respond to relevant consultations, provide evidence to NI Assembly Committees on key issues and produce briefings/ manifestos aimed at our elected representatives. In the run-up to elections, we also arrange hustings events, providing our members with engagement opportunities with election candidates.
Here are some of our key documents in this area:
● Policy Asks 2022
● Manifesto for a Rights Based Return to Power Sharing
Capacity Building
We regularly organise training sessions and workshops to build capacity among Coalition members across various issues. These sessions are sometimes delivered by Equality Coalition members who have expertise in a particular area, or sometimes we bring in external organisations to deliver training.
Some of our past training sessions have included:
● Gender budgeting (in partnership with Ulster University and the Northern Ireland Women’s Budget Group)
● Proposed cuts to disability benefits (with the Northern Ireland Anti-Poverty Network)
● Countering misinformation and disinformation (with FactCheckNI)
● Section 75 compliance and ministerial complaints procedures
● Just Transition and climate justice
● Defamation and Online Abuse Training (in collaboration with PILS)
● SLAPPs Seminar (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation)