Our campaigning and advocacy work
Our campaigns and advocacy work are central to how the Equality Coalition drives change. We combine collective campaigning, public mobilisation, and lived-experience voices with strategic legal, policy, and human rights advocacy to challenge inequality and hold decision-makers to account. Together, this work strengthens accountability, builds public pressure, and pushes for lasting, rights-based change.
Campaigns
The Equality Coalition undertakes strategic campaigning to build public awareness, shift narratives, and generate collective pressure for change on equality and socio-economic rights. Our campaigns are grounded in human rights principles.
We work very closely with our member organisations to identify shared priorities and develop coordinated campaigns that combine public messaging, media engagement, and collective action. The Equality Coalition strengthens civil society’s ability to influence public debate and decision-making by bringing together diverse voices. Here are some of our prominent campaigns:
The Equality Coalition has long campaigned for the introduction of a binding, rights-based Anti-Poverty Strategy in Northern Ireland.
Despite a clear legal duty under legislation arising from the 2006 St Andrews Agreement, the Northern Ireland Executive repeatedly failed to adopt an Anti-Poverty Strategy. In response, our Co-Convenor, the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), supported by Equality Coalition member Public Interest Litigation Services (PILS), took judicial review proceedings to hold the Executive to account.
In March 2025, the High Court ruled that the Northern Ireland Executive was in breach of its legal obligation to adopt an Anti-Poverty Strategy.
This campaign combined strategic litigation with collective mobilisation. Equality Coalition members, including UNISON, supported the legal challenge through public demonstrations at the High Court and media engagement, helping to build pressure for action.
Following the ruling, the Department for Communities consulted on a draft Anti-Poverty Strategy, which fell short of the recommendations made by the Expert Panel and Co-Design Group. During the consultation, the Equality Coalition produced a comparator analysis to support members’ advocacy and strengthen scrutiny of the proposals.
Many Coalition members are part of the Anti-Poverty Strategy Group (formerly the Co-Design Group). Together, we continue to campaign for a robust, rights-based Anti-Poverty Strategy that reflects these recommendations and delivers meaningful change for people experiencing poverty and inequality.
The Good Friday Agreement included a commitment for a Northern Ireland Bill of Rights, which was to include additional rights to those contained within the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Despite the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission producing advice on this in 2008, progress stalled.
The New Decade New Approach Agreement (NDNA) provided for a new process for progressing the NI Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland. It established an Ad Hoc Committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly which comprised the five main political parties. The Committee produced a report in 2022, however no further progress has been made.
In the absence of a NI Bill of Rights, several political mechanisms, such as the St Andrews Veto, the Petition of Concern and the Executive Agenda Veto, are misused to block the advancement of human rights in the NI Assembly. Since its formation, the NI Assembly has not passed a single piece of equality legislation and our institutions have repeatedly collapsed.
We have long called for the repeal of the St Andrews Veto and its replacement with an NI Bill of Rights. The NI Bill of Rights is also necessary for the Petition of Concern to function as intended.
You can read more about these mechanisms here.
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 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.
We engage regularly with the Dedicated Mechanisms in Northern Ireland on issues raised by members that engage Article 2. The Coalition is also a member of the NI UK–EU Civic Working Group and participates in the Civic Delegation to the Co-Chairs of the Joint Committee overseeing implementation of the Windsor Framework.
These forums allow us to raise rights and equality concerns directly with UK and EU institutions.
Advocacy
The Equality Coalition undertakes strategic advocacy to advance equality, human rights, and socio-economic justice in Northern Ireland. We work to ensure that the voices of those most affected by inequality are reflected in law, policy, and decision-making processes.
Our advocacy is grounded in international human rights standards, domestic equality law, and robust evidence. We engage constructively with institutions while also holding decision-makers to account where rights are not being realised.
We advocate across a range of forums and levels, including the Northern Ireland Assembly, government departments, public bodies, and international human rights mechanisms.
Through our engagement, we seek not only immediate policy change, but longer-term structural reform such as strengthening accountability, embedding rights-based approaches in governance, and contributing to a more equal and inclusive society.
The Equality Coalition engages regularly with Assembly Committees to support effective scrutiny of legislation, policy, and government decision-making. We provide committees with evidence-based analysis grounded in human rights standards.
Our engagement includes submitting written evidence and providing oral briefings. We also encourage our members to engage with Committees and respond to relevant inquiries.
By engaging in these processes, we seek to strengthen democratic oversight, improve legislative outcomes, and ensure that equality and human rights considerations are embedded throughout the policy cycle.
Some of our most recent engagement with Committees includes:
Oral and Written Evidence to the Committee for the Executive Office on their Inquiry into Gaps in Equality Legislation
Oral and Written Evidence to the Assembly and Executive Review Committee on their inquiry into Assembly and Executive Reform
Oral and Written Evidence to the Committee for Communities on the need for an Anti-Poverty Strategy.
The Equality Coalition engages constructively with Ministers and government departments to influence the development, implementation, and review of public policy. We advocate for rights-based, evidence-informed approaches that advance equality and comply with domestic and international legal obligations.
Our work includes meetings and briefings with Ministers, special advisers, and officials; submissions to consultations and policy reviews; and ongoing dialogue on key equality and socio-economic rights priorities. We draw on the collective expertise of our members to present clear, coordinated positions to government.
Where necessary, we also challenge decisions or approaches that risk undermining equality or human rights, and we use accountability mechanisms to promote transparency and compliance.
Through this engagement, we aim to support better policy-making and more equitable outcomes for communities across Northern Ireland.
Some of our most recent engagement with Ministers revolved around our list of priorities for the Programme for Government, which were devised after consultation with our member groups. We met with a number of ministers and secured a number of commitments.