Rights and equality under the Peace Settlement
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.
Human rights and equality are central pillars of the Agreement. The settlement recognised that durable peace required robust legal protections, institutional safeguards, and mechanisms to prevent discrimination and abuse of power.
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, ensuring direct access to the courts for breaches of Convention rights. This commitment was delivered through the Human Rights Act 1998, which came into force in 2000.
Almost 30 years after the Agreement was signed, many commitments remain outstanding. Therefore, we work to ensure these unfulfilled commitments are delivered, and are not diluted, delayed or overlooked.
Our approach combines coordinated sector-wide advocacy, research, political engagement and cross-jurisdictional monitoring to safeguard the Agreement’s equality architectures.
The Anti-Poverty Strategy
The Good Friday Agreement and subsequent agreements, including The St Andrews Agreement, place clear obligations on government to address inequality and social exclusion.
A central example is the statutory duty on the Northern Ireland Executive to adopt a binding Anti-Poverty Strategy based on objective need. After years of government inaction, CAJ, supported by Equality Coalition member PILS initiated judicial review proceedings. In March 2025, the High Court ruled that the Executive was in breach of its legal duty.
Following the judgment, the Department for Communities consulted on a draft Anti-Poverty Strategy. The Coalition produced a detailed comparator assessing the draft against the recommendations of the Expert Panel and Co-Design Group, supporting coordinated advocacy for a robust, rights-based final strategy. Many of our member groups are members of the ‘Anti-Poverty Strategy Group’. Together, we continue to press for a robust, rights-based Anti-Poverty Strategy that reflects these recommendations and delivers meaningful change for those most affected by poverty and inequality.
Other Social Inclusion Strategies
A draft Programme for Government incorporated within NDNA included important commitments to tackle disadvantage and drive economic growth “on the basis of objective need” and was underpinned by “key supporting strategies”:
- Racial Equality Strategy;
- Disability Strategy;
- Gender Strategy;
- Sexual Orientation Strategy;
- Irish Language Strategy
- Ulster Scots Strategies
Many of our members were on co-design groups of these strategies and the Anti-Poverty Strategy. However, our members identified recurring gaps in co-design processes across key strategies. In response, the Coalition convened a seminar on participation and co-design in 2025, bringing together civil society organisations and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission to clarify rights-based standards and strengthen collective engagement with government. We continue to advocate for meaningful, inclusive co-design processes.
Northern Ireland Bill of Rights
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, have been 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
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.
We engage regularly with the Dedicated Mechanisms in Northern Ireland on issues raised by members that engage with 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.
Programme for Government
The Programme for Government is the Executive’s central delivery framework. Ensuring that it reflects Good Friday Agreement commitments is essential to translating rights into practice.
Under the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement (GFA), the function of annually seeking to agree and review a Programme for Government “incorporating an agreed budget linked to policies and programmes” sits with the Northern Ireland Executive.
In the past, we have produced analyses of both draft and final Programmes for Government, identifying gaps in the delivery of rights-based commitments made in previous agreements. We then share these documents with our members to assist them in their advocacy and to coordinate our engagement with elected representatives and push for the inclusion of rights-based commitments within core government priorities.
Some of our past submissions can be found here:
- Submission by the Equality Coalition to the draft Programme for Government Consultation
- Submission on Programme for Government outcomes and draft budget
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
Some of our recent engagement with NI Assembly committees includes:
- Equality Coalition Committee for Communities Oral Evidence
- Submission to the Assembly and Executive Review Committee’s Review of Assembly and Executive Reform and oral evidence session
- Submission to the Committee on the Executive Office Inquiry into Gaps in Equality Legislation and oral evidence session.
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’ response so that we can lean on each other’s expertise.
Here are some of our reports and submissions:
- Progressing an anti-poverty strategy for Northern Ireland – Seminar Report
- Stormont’s vetoes in the context of a pandemic – An Equality Coalition briefing note
- Post-Brexit Citizenship Status: Divided by the Rules? – Conference Report
- Meeting Objective Need: Towards an Anti Poverty Strategy for Northern Ireland Conference Report
- A Fresh Start for Equality? The Equality Impacts of the Stormont House Agreement on the Two Main Communities – an Action Research Intervention
Capacity Building
We also regularly organise training sessions and workshops in this area. 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 events and training sessions have included:
- Progressing an anti-poverty strategy for Northern Ireland Seminar
- Meeting Objective Need: Towards an Anti Poverty Strategy for Northern Ireland
- Post-Brexit Citizenship Status: Divided by the Rules? Conference
- Article 2 of the Windsor Framework – Where are we now?
- Could rights-based safeguards make Stormont functional?
- How could minority and women’s rights be protected in a United Ireland?