10/12/2022
Blog article marking International Human Rights Day 2022.
It’s the Northern Ireland Human Rights Festival 2022, and the Equality Commission is proud to support the Human Rights Consortium, which organises the Festival.
We continue to call for a strong domestic human rights framework, which promotes equality of opportunity and prevents discrimination, both at a UK-wide level, and in Northern Ireland. The current framework should be protected and strengthened.
The Human Rights Act 1998, and the European Court of Human Rights have made a range of judgments benefiting different equality groups, including disabled people and people of different ages, races, sexual orientations, religious beliefs, and genders. This has allowed Northern Irish people to challenge public authorities on issues such as the rights of unmarried parents to adopt children.
The existing framework has clearly played an important role in furthering equality and allowing individuals to establish their rights.
Writing in her latest blog, Aisha O'Reilly, Policy Officer at the Equality Commission NI, looks at the equality considerations of the human rights framework.